electrolytes and workout-sickness

[cellomusette]

I've had a few instances this summer where intense exercise caused a really vile headache.
The first time, I probably didn't drink enough water. So the next two times, I chugged a few bottle-fulls of water after exercising. The second time, I still got the headache.
Yesterday I played kickball in the sun and sweated my arse off. I drank 3-4 bottles of water, enough so that I felt waterlogged, afterwards. I really pushed the fluids. I got a milder headache, but I also became really nauseous and vomited a couple of times.

The only thing I can come up with is that I gave myself an electrolyte imbalance. I am an excessive sweater. Dehydration causes headaches, nausea and vomiting, and hyponatremia (low electrolytes) definitely causes nausea. I know I was repulsed by the plain water after my second bottle of it, and I hadn't eaten in hours. I also know I've become a big fan of chinese chicken-rice soup, which is mostly chicken broth; back in the old days, people replaced their electrolytes with soup stock made from animal bones.

I would love to invest in some coconut water for when I exercise, but that stuff's expensive and needs a good amount of refrigerator space. I'm calling my doctor on Tuesday to find out exactly what's going wrong when I exercise. In the meantime, I've got a couple of huge bottles of SmartWater on my shelf, and it seems to go down a lot easier than regular water. Go figure.

Comments

[bethr.livejournal.com]

I often get headaches after intense exercise. Sometimes it's not from dehydration; it's just from gritting my teeth together while I do it.

[watercolorblue.livejournal.com]

Yikes, that sounds unpleasant. That's definitely not what's happening with me; I was smiling and laughing yesterday when I was playing kickball. (Also, "intense exercise" for me is "mild-to-moderate" exercise for normal people...my body just likes to scream at me whenever I force it to move.)

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

I found this recipe for an electrolyte replacer drink: http://www.recipezaar.com/Electrolyte-Replacement-Drink-Gatorade-Powerade-Pedialyte-304596. Dunno how well it'll work, but I figure it would be cool and probably a lot cheaper if it did.

[dalbino83.livejournal.com]

Check the ethnic food section in the grocery store; there's at least one vendor in the Spanish food area that has canned coconut water with no additives or sweeteners! Haven't tried it, so I don't know if it tastes good or not.