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Hydration
- by valley01
- 2013-10-20 10:10:54
- General Posting
- 4334 views
- 17 comments
My Cardiologist said I need to drink 6-8oz of water, juice, or sports drinks an hour. I understand staying hydrated but does this seem excessive? Sleep is also important and I have been getting up 2-3 times a night to use the bathroom. Was anyone else told to drink this much?
17 Comments
NCS?
by Tracey_E - 2013-10-20 10:10:15
If you sleep 8 hours a night, that comes to 96 oz a day. Rule of thumb is half an ounce per pound of body weight, more than that if you are very active. Also, people with low bp or NCS are often told to drink extra. I'm 150 lbs so I make sure I get at least 75 oz a day, usually get at least 120 so what he's telling you is about what I drink daily. I stop at dinner time, nothing to drink after dinner. That cuts way back on the trips in the middle of the night!
And make it water! If you do that many ounces a day of juice or sports drinks, the calories will add up crazy fast. I only do sports drinks if I'm out in the heat for a long period of time, and I go for coconut water over the sugary stuff. I never drink juice, very little nutrition for the amount of sugar/calories, but that's a personal choice.
NCS possible?
by valley01 - 2013-10-20 11:10:05
I did pass out in July, just seen the EP's PA for the first time on September 16th. He mentioned Neurally Mediated Hypotention and a few other possibilities they were planning to start testing for. I never made it that far, ended up in the ER just over a week later. I do drink only water, I don't want to drink the extra calories. I'll try getting more water in earlier so I can stop drinking by 7pm but even during the day I feel like I'm in the bathroom nonstop.
I don't mean to...
by donr - 2013-10-21 01:10:28
...rain on anyone's parade, but before taking off & swilling down 48 oz of water per hour, I'd find out if your kidneys can process that much water.
I OD'd on water while working in the Saudi desert in 1992. I had never worked in the open on a desert before & kept up drink for drink w/ an associate who was an old desert rat.
Less than an hour after drinking my second liter of water I was in the hosp w/ extremely high BP - 187/114 - or thereabouts. Took a week to get my BP back under some semblance of control.
At a follow up appt I lucked into seeing a nephrologist (Kidney specialist) who told me when I described what had happened that I had OD'd. What compounded my problems was that after starting to feel bed, I drank more , thinking I had not drunk enough.
Turns out that I can only handle ONE pint per hour.
Turned out that the man I kept up with had low BP & processed water faster than a fish.
Don
Tracey...
by donr - 2013-10-21 01:10:31
...how do you keep from getting what my Grandmother called the "Galloping Trots"?
If I drink a glass of coconut juice, I can plan on setting an Olympic record in the 100 meter Dash on the way to the potty.
Don
Great idea!
by valley01 - 2013-10-21 01:10:56
I didn't think to mix it but that sounds pretty good. I was using ECO water packets all summer after workouts which supposedly have 4x the electrolytes of Gatorade plus I was eating a lot of dried apricots and spinach so I'm surprised my potassium got so low. It probably has something to do with my aldersterone level being off.
coconut water
by Tracey_E - 2013-10-21 01:10:56
coconut water Don, not the same thing as the juice. It's the clear stuff that comes out of the middle of the coconut. It doesn't even taste coconut-y, which imo is a good thing because I'm not a fan of coconut.
Valley, I don't like the taste either! But it hydrates better than regular water after a workout (or any other time potassium might be low), many more electrolytes than a sports drink. I either use it for the base in my smoothie or mix it 8oz coconut water, 4oz selter, big squirt of lemon or lime juice and half a pack of stevia. It comes out tasting like a less sweet sprite.
Up to date information
by Jonny - 2013-10-21 05:10:01
Creaky is correct in saying your cardiologist gave you the wrong info, it should be per day. However even this amount is starting to be considered as possibly far too much, and they are now saying you should only take in what your body asks for, just like you only breathe at the rate your body requires of you. Suggest you read this recent article or get hold of the original.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24464774
An odd thing for him to suggest
by valley01 - 2013-10-21 08:10:12
for me to drink so much water when he was treating me for extremely low potassium level (2.1). That was an interesting article and makes sense since everybody is different. And I have to say my BP has been high since my surgery (even on meds), I can't seem to get it back down. I have a follow up appointment tomorrow and will ask him for clarification. I normally do drink a lot of water, it seems I'm thirsty all of the time, but even I have a hard time drinking that much water, especially when I can't exercise right now and it's much colder outside.
Hmmmmm!
by donr - 2013-10-21 09:10:21
Last two comments sound like what I wrote.
Sounds like your kidneys are having trouble w/ the workload placed on them.
Don
how much??
by Tracey_E - 2013-10-21 10:10:39
ok, maybe I read that wrong. I read it as drink between 6 and 8 ounces of water an hour, not 8oz glass x 6 every hour. 6 glasses an hour is crazy! You won't have any potassium left and your kidneys will go on overload.
coconut water is a great source of potassium.
You are correct
by valley01 - 2013-10-21 11:10:45
It is 6 to 8 ounces of water per hour. I only sleep 7 hours so that would be 102-136 ounces a day. I tried coconut water but I'm not really fond of it.
Water, sports drinks and NCS
by jenny97 - 2013-10-22 09:10:10
Drinking large amounts of fluids is a common treatment of neurocardiogenic syncope/neurally-mediated hypotension/vasovagal syncope and the amount recommended for you is not excessive in that context. However, when you are ingesting that much fluid, it is important to keep the electrolytes up, which is probably why they suggested you drink sports drinks in addition to water. I drink about 20 ounces of fluid every two hours and Mayo Clinic (where I was evaluated for NCS/VVS) told me to replace a couple of those bottles of water with sports drinks to make sure I stay thoroughly hydrated. I drink low sugar gatorade or no sugar propel or powerade.
It's also helpful to increase your sodium intake (if you indeed have low blood pressure and NCS). This helps your body hold on to the fluid you take in a little better so you don't have to drink quite so much.
For myself, and this is only my own experience so may not be 100 percent applicable, if I am going to the bathroom excessively after drinking the fluids, then I feel like my body does not need so much fluid and I back off a little. But when I drink a lot of fluid and I don't need to use the restroom within a reasonable amount of time, then I up my intake of fluids. Symptoms also dictate. I up my fluid intake and sodium intake if I start having dizzy spells, tachycardia, or head rush when I go from sitting to standing. And finally, drinking the fluids in small sips every so often seems to help my body get the most out of the fluids rather than drinking a whole bottle once an hour.
As for exercise, I am a runner and find that drinking low sugar gatorade before and after running distances of 5 miles or more really helps me get rehydrated quicker when I'm finished with the run. I actually use a camel pak with a mix of gatorade and water throughout the entire run, but I also drink a full 20 ounces of water within an hour of completing the run.
Anyway, I hope this information is helpful. Or at least that you find the balance that your body needs.
All the best,
Jenny
Agree with Jenny.
by Creaky - 2013-10-23 10:10:38
I found full strength gatorade too concentrated. Diluted it 50:50. Then found a sports drink powder that I now use, so can experiment with concentration very easily. Called Shaklee Performance . All good advice above. Good luck.
Creaky
Thanks
by valley01 - 2013-10-24 08:10:21
for all the comments. I do drink the low calorie Gatorade when I workout once in awhile. That's a good idea to water it down because I agree, it's too strong for me the way it is. I found a powder called ECO Water that has a lot of good stuff in it - very high in electrolytes - plus it's 0 calories.
Costco
by valley01 - 2013-10-29 09:10:48
I was getting it at SAM'S Club all summer but they stopped carrying it this fall so I got my last pack from Costco. They said they carry it year round.
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Seems Excessive
by Creaky - 2013-10-20 10:10:06
General recommendation is to drink 6-8 8 oz glasses of H2O a day, not an hour. Obviously your activity level will dictate need for more. As an example, I would carry 5 liters of water hiking on hot summer days on hikes of 10-13 miles with many thousands of feet of elevation gain. But that's a special circumstance. At normal daily activity levels, what was recommended does sound excessive.
Creaky