London Marathon & Re-hydration

As runners get ready for the London Marathon, I am putting up links to my previous blog posts on re-hydration.

 

Drowning and The Marathon

As the New York Marathon went underway, I am reminded of our much respected professor in medicine, Old Mac.

“It took 5 minutes to drown and 20 days to die from dehydration.”

Ancient Remedy: Modern Outlook

When the first public golf course was opened on the beautiful island of Kau Sai Chau in Hong Kong,drinking water was provided along the course. One player drank so much that he nearly died of water intoxication (result of drinking excessive amounts of plain water which causes a low concentration of sodium in the blood leading to amongst other problems: ‘brain’ swelling---cerebral oedema). Marathon runners are at greater risk than most as reported by the New England Medical Journal. There have been other notable cases of water intoxication elsewhere. I remember one of my professors telling us: the body survives dehydration much better than drowning. How right he was, as water intoxication is in a sense a kind of drowning.