[at-l] Altitude, electrolite imbalance, and dehydration

[Swillsing@aol.com]

Last year, when I was hiking in Zion National Park, I got a pretty bad case 
of electrolite imbalance.  The symptoms were overall weakness and nausea.  I 
was fully hydrated, so you can get really messed up even if you are drinking 
a lot.  I found an outfitting store in St. George, Utah, and they introduced 
me to a terrific product called Gookinade.  It has more in it than Gatorade 
and actually tastes good!  I took enough powder to make over 30 gallons to 
Nepal since my daughter and I were hiking for 30 days and that meant an 
average of 2 quarts a day each.  I can't even start to tell you how many time 
it helped me, not only for dehydration, but also altitude sickness and the 
electrolite imbalance.  It also helps jet lag.  I realize now that many 
times, when I thought I had heat sickness, it was more a problem with 
electrolites.  I ended up giving a lot away to people suffering from altitude 
sickness.  I got up to 18,000 feet in Nepal, and only had symptoms at the 
very top.  Just came back from hiking in Idaho and got up to 8400 ft with no 
problems.  I usually will camel up a quart before starting a hike, take 
another quart half way thru and another at the end of the hike if I am 
feeling headachey or thirsty.

The bad news is the stuff is made in California and impossible to find east 
of the Mississippi.  The good news is I talked the owners into giving me over 
a 100 packets and brochures to give out at the Gathering,so make sure you 
look me up!!  The powder comes in 1 qt packets and 5 gallon buckets.  I found 
that when I am dayhiking, I will take the qt packet and when I am 
backpacking, I will put the powder in ziplocs with the scoop from the bucket. 
 If you are going to be at the Gathering, email me and I will give you more 
information.

See you at the Gathering!
Leapfrog

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