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> You can also make good oral rehydration solutions yourself at home for pennies: Just take 32 ounces of water and add 6 teaspoons of sugar and a half-teaspoon
by mabbo 9y ago
> You can also make good oral rehydration solutions yourself at home for pennies: Just take 32 ounces of water and add 6 teaspoons of sugar and a half-teaspoon of salt.
> resist the temptation to drink at a normal rate... An ounce at a time every few minutes
This should be something everyone learns. Many common headaches are just dehydration. When you've got a cold or flu, dehydration is common and makes you feel even more miserable. Got a hangover? This will make things better for you.
The only part of this I've never realized was how much sugar is needed to optimize it. Good to know for next time.
- albertgoeswoof 9y agowhat does the sugar and salt do in this case? edit: it's in the article: > for rehydration, glucose is basically as important as sodium. The two compounds work together to pull water into shriveled cells that have been deprived of ample water.
- masklinn 9y agoIIRC it's mostly a factor for gut absorption: when gut cells absorb glucose, sodium is cotransported (goes along for the ride) and thus pass through the gut and into the bloodstream at a much greater rate, and the greater sodium gradient increases the rate of water absorption: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11193601 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11193601 And the sodium also (and originally) serves to combat hyponatremia, as lost fluid generally brings sodium along for the ride if you rehydrate with non-electrolytic water you find yourself with mild to severe low sodium levels.
- dwyerm 9y agoIt drove me a little bit crazy to hear a mom complaining about how she couldn't find sugar-free Pedialyte for her child. It is difficult to explain that to a person who has spent their whole adult life demonizing artificial colors, artificial flavors, and of course sugar.
- cat199 9y agoIf only there were Diet Pedialyte(tm)!
- chopin 9y agoThat explains my appetite in sweet beverages (which I normally do not drink) when having a hangover.
- ChrisRR 9y agoSame. I'm always really in the mood for orange juice when I'm hungover.
- mjburgess 9y agoDehydration causes sugar binges for this reason. There's many a time, I believe, I've mistaken a loss of appetite control for some "emotional event" when it's been mere dehydration. I recently traveled for several days without drinking much and sugar binged when getting home. I assumed the travel had stressed me, rather, I was just severely dehydrated.
- kragen 9y agoThe article is wrong. I moved my response to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16440309 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16440309
- tomp 9y agois just salt enough? Or do we need to replenish any other minerals other than Na and Cl (K comes to mind)?
- chillydawg 9y agoThe salt isn't there because you need salt, it's there to optimise absorption of water. This is treatment for H2O deficiency, not anything else.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoHuh, interesting, anything i can read on this point? Aka citation please.
- radarsat1 9y agoThis seems to explain it.. http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/smallgut/absorb_water.html http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/smal...
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoHmm, that's going to need some study - particularly that the article says osmolarity allows for water to flow down the gradient, but then the final paragraph says that water can flow contrary to the gradient too. Thanks for the link.
- chillydawg 9y agoThe article you are commenting on explains it in great detail.
- J_Sherz 9y agoPotassium is also important, whatever mechanism you are losing Sodium (Sweat, urine, diarrhea, vomiting), there's a good chance you're losing Potassium too. Some ORS products also include Zinc because in the developing world it has been shown to reduce the duration and severity of acute and persistent diarrhea. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11101480 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11101480
- nradov 9y agoWould drinking oral rehydration solution mixed with vodka prevent the hangover from occurring in the first place?
- awakeasleep 9y agoA lot of the hangover effect comes from acetaldehyde, a somewhat toxic product of the metabolism of alcohol. A big part of the hangover is waiting for your body to get rid of acetaldehyde. Drinking more reduces your awareness of the effects of acetaldehyde, but increases the total amount of it in your body, prolonging the hangover.
- logfromblammo 9y agoAldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes employ the sulfur chemistry of cysteine. Taking n-acetyl cysteine before you drink helps your body to synthesize the ALDH. Glutamate (easily available from monosodium glutamate) is required, along with water, for the enzyme to process aldehydes into carboxylic acids. The reaction is powered by NAD+/NADH, so adequate niacin and tryptophan in your diet would help you have enough of that, but that system also powers the alcohol dehydrogenase that is producing the aldehydes. Whether you get hangovers or not largely depends on the relative efficiency of your ADH versus your ALDH enzymes. If you clear aldehyde faster than you can metabolize the alcohol, you never get hangovers unless you have some odd sulfur-based chemistry happening in your body. If you clear aldehyde slower than you metabolize alcohol, you get hangover effects. If you have an ALDH defect, or are taking a drug that antagonizes it, you might experience "Asian blush", with immediate unpleasant reactions to drinking alcohol. Dehydration has its own unpleasant symptoms, and since alcohol is a diuretic, it can dehydrate you. Drinking water or electrolyte rehydration solutions will help with that. You can be fully hydrated and still have a hangover, but at least you won't have a hangover and be dehydrated too. I have never had a hangover, but the chemistry suggests that if you get them routinely, supplementing your diet with NAC might help. Eating tofu and shiitake (high in tryptophan/niacin) with MSG as you drink or after you drink might also help. It's mostly your genetics, though. If you get bad hangovers, there's no easy cure for it other than to drink less alcohol.
- 9y ago
- aidenn0 9y agoQuick tip: for kids, you can make popsicles out of the solution, which will moderate the rate at which they drink it.
- amorphid 9y agoNot if you eat popsicles the way I do! Lick, lick, crunch, more please.
- ceejayoz 9y agoMy teeth hurt just from reading your comment.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y agoThe salt won't freeze though?
- aidenn0 9y agoIf you look at the recipe it's like 3g of salt in 1L of water; that lowers the freezing point a bit, but not much.
- wingspar 9y agoSalt water freezes fine... Lower than 32f/0c but not too much for a regular household freezer. https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1722 https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1722
- kragen 9y agoSalt freezes at 801°. If the temperature is too high for the salt to freeze, it's way too high for the water or the salt–water eutectic to freeze. Also, you are going to have worse health problems than dehydration pretty quick.
- scrooched_moose 9y agoThey also make Pedialyte popsicles. Great for kids and hungover adults.
- jtuente 9y agoSome quick googling estimates 6 tsp of sugar is about 25 grams or 100 calories. For comparison, a 32oz bottle of Gatorade G2 (low calorie) has about 19 grams of sugar, and a 32oz bottle of normal Gatorade has about 56 grams. Adding - 1/2 tsp of salt is 2.5 grams of which it is 1 gram of sodium. G2 - 435mg sodium, 120mg potassium; normal - 400mg, 100mg.
- LeifCarrotson 9y agoAs a third point of reference, the Strawberry Lemonade 32oz Powerade I have here next to my keyboard (now filled with water) contains 56g sugar, 400 mg sodium, 93 mg potassium. Note that the label says it contains 21g sugar, 150mg sodium, 35 mg potassium - per 12 fluid ounces. Multiply by 2.66 if you drink the whole bottle. In table format: DIY Oral Gatorade Gatorade Powerade Pedialyte Solution G2 Sugar (g) 25 19 56 56 24 Sodium (mg) 1000 435 400 400 986 Potassium (mg) 0 120 100 93 780 (per 32 Oz) It's striking how similar the regular Gatorade and Powerade are. Also, the powerade.com nutritional info site is "down for maintenance", had to search elsewhere: http://archive.is/2018.02.22-160258/https://www.powerade.com/products/ http://archive.is/2018.02.22-160258/https://www.powerade.com.... They have the Coca-Cola logo.gif on the site, but unfortunately no animated orange construction barrels. Edit: Added Pedialyte
- calebsurfs 9y agoThere is a major difference between Gatorade and Powerade, which is the type of sugar. Gatorade has glucose (aka dextrose, the same sugar as an IV bag) while Powerade has high fructose corn syrup. Glucose can be used directly by your cells while fructose is metabolized in the liver first. So for quick relief from dehydration I choose Gatorade. * Glucose = 100% dextrose * table sugar / sucrose = 50% dextrose * high fructose corn syrup = ~40% dextrose
- jtuente 9y agoThe relevant link, unfortunately it does not list the potassium in mg - https://www.coca-colaproductfacts.com/en/products/powerade/strawberry-lemonade/32-oz/ https://www.coca-colaproductfacts.com/en/products/powerade/s...
- vanderZwan 9y agoOn the first day after I had my tonsils removed, I thought that maybe using oral rehydration solution at lukewarm temperatures would be less painful than water. It worked so well that I barely needed any painkillerss during my recovery after that. Quite surprised my doctor didn't suggest it to me though.
- Cw67NTN8F 9y agoTo make kids drink something...would juice /soda and some type of salty chips or crackers work? They get some sugar and water from the drink and some salt from the crackers, potato chips. Simply because they are probably more likely to drink and eat that :)
- Shivetya 9y agoI am curious but I suspect the sugar would still be fine to keep a diabetic from entering Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) which occurs from dehydration. this hits particularly close to home as this is what happens to my own mother when she gets sick, she stops drinking and being diabetic it can escalate. example, while sick and headed to hospital her blood sugar being pass two hundred. This is having only eaten once in three days. Two hours later it hit seven hundred plus in emergency. They got her out of it but the simple reason is, you dehydrate and toxins build up plus your body starts to break down what it can to get sugar. anyone you know who is diabetic, nah scratch that, proper hydration is key. Take it from the Dune, water is life.
- cthalupa 9y agoThe sugar was the big news to me, as well. I usually use an electrolyte mix if I've been drinking, and it usually works - but there's been some times when it hasn't. I just looked at the formula, and zero sugar. I'll be adding some sugar to it to see if it improves things.