[at-l] Salt Tablets

[nealb@midlandstech.com (William Neal)]

Most of the advice about salt sounds reasonable.  Especially if you eat a
lot of salty commerical food like soup mixes, jerkies, etc.  But if you go
for "health" foods or "homemades", you may not get enough salt.

I worked in a "cotton" mill for a number of years.  They went as far as
providing salt tablets and later Gatorade mixes for water kegs.  When I went
on a diet, I ate very little salt.  And I HATED the taste of Gatorade; so I
did not drink it.  Unfortunately they discontinued the salt tablets.  

While on top of a piece of machine 20 to 30 feet high, I almost passed out,
and was so weak and out of it, I had to have a "team" go down the ladder
behind me and in front of me.  The infirmary's diagnosis was that I had
sweated out too much of my electrolytes and water.  I got a long "lunch"
break where I ate lots of salty food and drank lots of liquids.

If I had been alone, and if "salty" food had been nearby, I would have been
in serious trouble.  And all from exercising hard in high heart and not
getting enough salts.  

So, I'd carry some salty food, and a few tablets JIC.  A few salt tablets
won't hurt for emergencies.  And if you need them, you probably can find
them in most medium sized towns.

Better yet, carry electrolyte drink mixes.  If you can stand the taste.

William, The Turtle

-----Original Message-----
From: Alexis Lee Acken [mailto:ackenglass@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 9:23 PM
To: at-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [at-l] Salt Tablets


This directly relates to my past weekend.  I sweat a lot.  And I mean a lot.
And I drink a LOT of water, like 6-8 Liters on a full day of hiking.  I've
always tended to get headaches on sunny days no matter how much water I
drink.  I've just blamed it on some kind of photo-sensitivity and took
ibuprofen.  But, anyway, I got a free sample pack of electrolyte tablets at
my local food co-op recently.  (I can't pass up free stuff) So, as an
experiment this past sunny weekend, I hiked on Saturday and had my standard
throbbing headache when I stopped at seven to camp.  Then I took one every
two hours or so when I was out hiking this Sunday and did fourteen miles by
2pm without a hint of a headache.  I don't know about the scientific
validity of this but I think I'm going back to buy a bottle of the
electrolyte tablets.  I don't know what the brand name was because I threw
it away before my hike but if anyone's intrested I'll let you know when I
find out.

Alexis