SUMMARY

SODIUM

Most experiments that have supplemented athletes with sodium during exercise have failed to find performance benefits, although some have found better maintenance of thirst, body mass, and blood volume.

Despite occasionally finding correlations between sodium losses in sweat and the onset of exercise-associated muscle cramping, most studies refute the role of sodium depletion as the primary culprit in this condition.

Foods and beverages that activate TRP vanilloids and ankyrins (pickle juice, vinegar, mustard, ginger, etc.) may reduce the duration and/or severity of muscle cramps.

Although there aren’t many severe risks of taking sodium supplements during exercise, large quantities of sodium can slow stomach emptying and induce gut symptoms like nausea in a minority of athletes.