Almost overdid it today

[Bruno of NH]

I have been working my butt off for the last 2 years.
After the new year I got a new crew which wants to work.
This summer has been grhumidity eat but my knee pain has kicked up 3 notches . The last month I have slept about 2 hours a night on a good night. The humidy kicked up this week and im a mess. Made it working till yesterday. I got in last night feeling not so good.
I'm taking today off.
I'm going to have to figure out how to live with the pain better.
I decided I'm not going to be able to have my knees replaced ever.
One good thing when I'm sawing I don't feel a thing 

[alan gage]

I always seem to be fighting dehydration if I'm not careful. It wasn't until the past few years I realized it was related to the headaches and leg cramps I'd sometimes get since my early 20's. I'd suffered from it repeatedly and never realized the root cause until maybe 5 years ago.

Now I try to stay very aware of it. Leg cramps during the night or a light headache are usually my first warning signs that I need to start drinking a lot more water. And not just a glass or two but consistently drinking more over the next couple days. If I let it get away from me the headaches get worse and I start to feel lethargic and sick with no motivation whatsoever. The funny thing is that I never feel thirsty and drinking something is almost the last thing I want to do. It often takes a couple days to get back to normal despite drinking lots of liquids.

Going into dehydration also seems to occur over a longer period of time for me. It never happens after a strenuous day of not drinking enough but seems to creep up on me over a period of days with normal activity when I let my water intake slack off. In my mind there's a reservoir of water that's slowly depleted until it hits a level where I'm affected and it then takes a lot of time and water to get that reservoir built back up, a lot more than it takes to simply maintain the level once full.

My dad recently had his first bout of dehydration a couple months ago and he was down and out for over a week. Took him a few days to go to the doctor and realize that was the problem and a few more days of drinking like a fish to get back to normal.

I find the skin pinch test to be effective for me. For me a little headache and skin slow to snap back means it's time to start drinking. When my dad did the pinch test during his dehydration the ridge remained almost indefinitely after releasing, I've never had it that bad. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003281.htm

Alan

[doc henderson]

weigh in am and pm and compare, for total body water.  if you eat and drink you should maintain or gain.  if you see you loose 3 pounds overnight, then you were catching up.  dark foamy urine, hard poop, am dry mouth, need more water.

[barbender]

I drink Gatorade by the gallons, and lots of water, when I have to work on those hot days. Today is just over 70, yesterday was only about 65. I had forgotten how much I enjoy sawing, because it sucks so bad when it is 90! I worked for many years on an asphalt crew. So take the ambient summer temp, and then figure standing in or around 200°+ hot mix. It is not pleasant. I sweat very, very heavily besides, and it was almost impossible to take in enough fluids a lot of days. All that said, I'm sure a lot of t could just be I am getting older, but I sometimes wonder if I lost some of my ability to tolerate heat doing that for a living for so long. I just can't stand it anymore.

[York Woodwright]

I'm a 71 year old who mills by myself, so hard work on a hot day brings with it the ongoing challenge of dehydration and leg cramps. I drank lots of Gatorade but it still didn't solve the problem. However, a 2019 article on the value of chocolate milk changed my drinking habits and led to a significant reduction in cramping, dizziness, and such. Now when I head to the mill, I bring along a couple (or more) quarts of chocolate milk.

A systematic review article in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2019 concluded that "CM [chocolate milk] either provides similar or superior results on recovery indices compared to other recovery drinks and thus represents an alternative and often economic replacement." If you use this as an index article and know how to search medical literature, you can read subsequent publications which align with these conclusions.

It's been some years since I retired but I still enjoy reading medical journals. It pays off!

Here is the citation and URL:

Amiri, M., Ghiasvand, R., Kaviani, M. et al. Chocolate milk for recovery from exercise: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials. Eur J Clin Nutr 73, 835–849 (2019).

Chocolate milk for recovery from exercise: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials | European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

[WV Sawmiller]

Patrick,

   You are lucky I love and respect you or I'd do like the rest of the FF gang and offer another home remedy like the rest. There are several here that if they had posted such a comment/question I would have immediately espoused the therapeutic/curative and long term medical value of a couple of the 6 oz 6 packs of prune juice. I won't do that to you, however. Stay safe and don't over-do it for a while.

[Patrick NC]

Patrick,

  You are lucky I love and respect you or I'd do like the rest of the FF gang and offer another home remedy like the rest. There are several here that if they had posted such a comment/question I would have immediately espoused the therapeutic/curative and long term medical value of a couple of the 6 oz 6 packs of prune juice. I won't do that to you, however. Stay safe and don't over-do it for a while.

🤣🤣🤣

[mike_belben]

bud light counts for electrolytes right?

[Patrick NC]

bud light counts for electrolytes right?

Sure would make things simpler. 

[KenMac]

GatorAde gives me indigestion so I substitute Propel flavored water and try to use common sense and a certain amount of laziness to stay hydrated.

[Old Greenhorn]

bud light counts for electrolytes right?

Bud light doesn't count for anything. :D

[doc henderson]

bud light (alcohol) will impair your antidiuretic hormone and you will dehydrate.     eat plenty of salt on your food, even salt substitute (KCL instead of NaCL)  and take some tums, and a little milk of magnesia (too much will give you diarrhea 8))  and you got good electrolyte supplementation.   :D :D :D.  plenty of water.  or eat some potato chips for a snack or pickles (salty stuff)

[Bradm]

I'll second that chocolate milk recommendation.  I'll go through almost a litre (1/4 gallon) a night when it's real hot and humid.  I started it after getting heat exhaustion while screwing down a steel roof on a pig barn (rest of the guys went to the beer store while I went to Macs).

It's been said before and I'll say it again, be careful out there when it gets hot and humid.  Lots of water and salt help and so does avoiding caffeine.