Newsletter  What's New in Nutrition

RUNNING CORNER: What's New in Sports Nutrition?
With Jennifer Sygo, M.Sc., RD
 
Sports Drinks and Hyponatremia

A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that sports drinks are no better than water at preventing hyponatremia during a marathon race.  Researchers at Harvard University found that 13% of runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon suffered from hyponatremia (serum sodium concentration of 135 mmol/L or less) after the race, and the results were similar among both sports drink users and water drinkers alike. 

Does this mean that sports drinks are of no benefit during long distance running?  Even with this new evidence, there is still great support for the value of taking a sports drink with ~6% carbohydrate during prolonged activity.  Sports drinks such as Gatorade and E-Load have been shown to speed gastric emptying, increase time to exhaustion, and decrease perceived exertion versus water alone.  The carbohydrates in sports drinks also help reduce “bonking” by slowing glycogen depletion. 

While this new evidence suggests that the electrolyte concentration of most popular sports drinks perhaps needs to be revisited, the overwhelming body of research still supports the notion that sports drinks do more good than harm.