Monday, December 3, 2007

Chicken Soup DNF

There’s been so much written of late in the running (and popular) press about hyponatremia – the sometimes dangerous state of low blood sodium - that is was quite surprising to read in the November issue of UltraRunning (link) a case study of accomplished ultrarunner, Andy Holak, who DNFed in a fall 100 miler after taking in too much sodium. As he became dehydrated over the course of a few hours, he took in 3 cans of chicken soup with close to 1000 mg of sodium each. The result was a spike in his blood sodium, which caused dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and a dreaded DNF after close to 72 hard fought miles. It’s a cautionary tale, to be sure, as we’ve all started to boost our sodium intake after reading all that coverage of hyponatremia.

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