IV Hydration Or Sports Drinks?
Today’s modern life of quick workouts, drinking caffeinated beverages, and gulping energy drinks while chewing on energy bars to sustain oneself is scary. Our lifestyle choice to drink alternatives rather than water makes us paradoxically remain in a relative state of dehydration.
Multibillion Dollar Industry
There is an entire multibillion dollar industry dedicated to just catering to this lifestyle.
Key Question…
One important question our patients usually ask our staff physicians is the difference between oral hydration and intravenous fluids.
There have been studies where fluid replacement in terms of IV hydration vs. oral electrolytes’ has been conducted in the sports field in terms of exertion, dehydration, and other fluid-created illnesses.
One such study is the Hostler study, where subjects were given water, sports drinks, or IV rehydration therapy. This study was primarily done for firefighters. They were asked to be dressed in protective gear and then tasked with completing a variety of upper and lower body exercises in a timed period to find out the differences.
It was found that there was not too much of a benefit between oral and intravenous fluid intake. However, it should be remembered that when one is weak and has had an illness and the body is not a proper fit. In peak condition, an IV Hydration is essential to act quickly and efficiently to correct a situation of dehydration.
Understanding Stress
In today’s rat race of struggling in every situation, keeping our bodies stress free is important for a healthy life. Fluid balance is an important piece of the cardiac stress algorithm. Understand this…cardiac output is the quantity of blood that the heart pumps out through its circulatory system within one minute. The amount of blood pumped out by the left ventricle during one contraction is known as the stroke volume.
The stroke volume and the heart rate determine your cardiac output…thus if the stroke volume decreases because of dehydration and hypovolemia, the only way that the body can fight back is to increase the heart rate, which again leads to less blood supply going to the heart as the hearts gets most of its supply in the diastole phase. When this happens, the body’s cooling capacity also gets reduced, which causes a vicious cycle.
Now to bear this vicious cycle, we need to have plenty of hydration. Ironically most people overcompensate to prevent hyponatremia by drinking large quantities of sports drinks.
A study conducted during the Boston marathon of 488 runners showed that 0.6 percent of them had critical hyponatremia at the end of the run. These runners had consumed approximately a gallon of water, had slower finishing times, and were at extremes of BMI. The study suggested that an individual’s physical fitness levels play a large role in sodium regulation.
Conclusion…
Although providing rapid rehydration with IV Hydration will benefit the patient, it is reasonable to work with a combination of water, which is most important and, at the same time, using IV fluids.
Grandmothers were right in saying that moderation is the key to any ailment.
Providers who find patients not responding quickly enough to oral consumption must go in for the additional medical support of intravenous fluids or risk an electrolyte imbalance.
Based on research, water is, in most situations, an ideal rehydration beverage, while sports drinks are also beneficial but should never totally replace the use of pure water. Rehab with intravenous fluids is best suited for such occasions.
Avoiding caffeinated drinks and beverages is also recommended as caffeine’s diuretic effects are counterproductive to hydration rejuvenation.
It is always recommended that before any serious exertions, you should pre-hydrate.
