Hyponatremia reminder

[Thomas Martin]

I volunteered for the medical tent again for this year’s Ironman World Championship woman’s division. Both the 112 mile bike ride and the following marathon were hot. As usual, we saw a lot of heat exhaustion in the medical tent but no heat strokes that I witnessed. In 2022, we saw a handful of heat stroke patients.

Both of the top 2 finishers in the bike section dropped out of the marathon because of the conditions.

I saw an experienced triathlete (finisher) with severe hyponatremia by blood level who didn’t have the usual symptoms of significant hyponatremia. She said that she drank water and Gatorade during the race but her blood level suggested mostly water. She said that she took some salt “tablets” and some gummies for extra salt but not nearly enough. If we would have given her just cold water in the medical tent, as she requested, she may have had a poor outcome or worse. Once recognized, we raised her salt level to a safer range.

Many of these female triathletes who wound up in the medical tent were very experienced. One woman in her 30’s told me that this was her 26th triathlon.

This patient was well educated and was aware of the danger of hyponatremia. She thought that she took adequate salt in but was very wrong.

While Kona was hot, it was not as hot as some of the long rides that we do in central WA, most far longer than 112 miles.

Just a word of caution to the those who prefer to drink primarily water during our long, hot rides. Hyponatremia, can be fatal. Be sure to take in sufficient salt.

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

[Dave Thompson]

In 2015 I ran the Sunshine 1200k in Florida and a rider from Australia developed hyponatremia.  Police found him in the Fort Lauderdale area and took him to the nearest ER that thankfully recognized what was going on. He was put into a medically induced coma for almost a week. I contacted his wife who flew over to be with him. 

After recovery, since he happened to be a doctor, and with access to all the lab results, he wrote an article for a medical journal about his experience - or lack thereof, since he had no memory of landing in the US and starting the ride. 

Dave. 

From my iwdt

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