Currently viewing the category: "hydration"

Hollywood Editor Dies From Heat Stroke

By On · Add Comment · In heat stroke, hydration, hyperthermia, Quentin Tarantino, Sally JoAnne Menke, water

Not a nice story, but a sobering reminder of the importance of staying hydrated.  Sally JoAnne Menke, a longtime editor for Quentin Tarantino films was found dead early Tuesday morning, a victim of hyperthermia or heat stroke.  


Menke went out walking her dog with a friend at around 9 am Monday morning in Griffith Park in Los Angeles.  For those who don’t know, Monday was a day of record heat in Southern California, reaching 113 degrees in Los Angeles.   During the walk, Menke, who had a history of seizures, started complaining of dizziness; she decided to return to her car.  The friends split up, and Menke was observed walking on a hiking trail about 15 minutes later.  Witnesses say she appeared disoriented but declined any help.  Apparently, Menke and friend did set out on their hike with a bottle of water.  


When Menke failed to turn up after the hike, friends organized a search team and set out on horseback and by foot to find her.  By 6pm the police were called.  Search dogs, a police helicopter, Hollywood Division officers and the Fire Department’s urban search-and-rescue squad participated in the search.  Her locked car was found in a Griffith Park parking lot.  Menke’s body was found at 2:15 am at the bottom of a ravine near 5600 block of Green Oak Drive with her black Labrador retriever loyally by her side.  She was 56 years old.

Menke worked on every Tarantino film from Resevoir Dogs to in 1992 to last year’s Inglourious Basterds, which earned her an Academy Award nomination.  She also worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Heaven & Earth and Mulholland Falls.  Menke leaves behind two children, a son and a daughter.

This is a sad story that is a major reminder to everyone: Don’t mess around with your hydration levels.  Water is necessary for most life processes, with temperature regulation a crucial one.  We have a very intricate temperature regulation system that is dependent on water.  When hydration levels are low, we become susceptible to overheating, or heat stroke.  Disorientation, dizziness, fatigue, muscle weakness can all occur in an individual that is not properly regulating temperature.  In these individuals, they feel that they just need to lie down and  rest.  Bad idea.  It’s the sleep you may never wake up from.

If you find yourself in this situation, call 911 immediately.  Time might have saved Ms. Menke.  But even better, make sure you are properly hydrated from the start.  That requires two liters of water every day!  That’s right, two liters…daily. Can’t stomach it?  Better build up to it, because it’s what you need.  It doesn’t matter if you live in Southern California or the east coast, Florida or the Great Lakes–regardless of region, you can fall victim to hyperthermia (heat stroke) whenever you are not properly hydrated.

Water intake is not a game.  Don’t mess around.  If you don’t want to eat, you’ll survive, but if you don’t drink water, you’ll die within days.  You might even die sooner depending on conditions.  And don’t rely on your thirst mechanism to guide you.  Thirst is one of the last symptoms of dehydration.  Like I said, don’t mess around: drink your two liters of water every day.

My condolences to the Menke family.

Fainting French Prez

By On · Add Comment · In bottled water, dehydration, fainting, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, hydration, jogging, vagus nerve, vasovagal episode

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was hospitalized today for “falling ill” and fainting while jogging. French authorities have disclosed that their president suffered from a minor vasovagal episode while running at la Lanterne, the presidential retreat at Versailles. He was taken to to the military hospital at Val-de-Grâce in Paris for observation, and doctors there say he will “undergo supplementary testing.”

A vasovagal episode, or vasovagal syncope is a fainting spell that can be caused by many things. It involves the vagus nerve, a cranial nerve that connects the brain and the abdomen. The vagus nerve controls and coordinates various organs including the heart, major blood vessels and the muscles of the larynx (speech). Vasovagal episodes are the most common cause of fainting.

Several things can cause a vasovagal fainting episode. A few notable causes:

  • Prolonged standing or upright sitting, particularly when standing with legs in a locked position for long periods of time—avoidance of long-term locking of one’s legs in the standing position is taught in the military as well as in marching bands and drill teams.
  • Standing up very quickly
  • Stress
  • Hyperthermia, a prolonged exposure to heat
  • Sudden onset of extreme emotions
  • Hunger
  • Nausea or vomiting
  • Dehydration
  • Random onsets due to nerve malfunctions

Does anybody notice pattern here? Uh, water…um, hydration…water…nerve function…water. My guess is that Prez Sarkozy was running on empty; he was probably subclinically dehydrated. The French, like many people, drink dehydrating substances–liquor, caffeine–and if water levels are not replenished, then it’s easy to go into a water deficit. A water deficit doesn’t have to mean clinical dehydration–a medical emergency–but it can.

Even so, subclinical dehydration is serious enough to cause fainting, among other symptoms and disorders. I devote much ink to subclinical dehydration in my book, The Six Keys to Optimal Health. Without a doubt, at least 50% of incoming patients to my Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and West Hollywood chiropractic practice are operating at a water deficit. In a sunny and warm-weather climate like Southern California, being poorly hydrated is playing with fire. I’ll bet it is in Versailles, too.

Anyway, Sarkozy is likely going to be fine. He’s a regular exerciser, often photographed while jogging with his entourage. Nevertheless, he is being looked at and evaluated by his doctors. Although the French President is routinely checked physically, his last reported health exam at the beginning of July where he had normal blood and cardiovascular tests, he was briefly hospitalized in October 2007 for treatment of angina (chest pain).

The take home lesson here is for everybody to make sure they are sufficiently hydrated. Two liters of water per day is a good baseline. And if you are exercising in the heat, you might need more. Don’t mess around, stay hydrated–it could save your life.

Cramps

By On · Add Comment · In cramps, electrolytes, hydration, magnesium, muscle spasms

Arrrgh!!! Went back to the gym this weekend after a two month hiatus, and while stretching on Saturday, got the worst muscle cramp ever in my calf. You know the kind–instant constricting, spasming charley horse; the kind where you feel your muscle moving but are not doing anything to make it move. It’s like an alien head is going to pop out of the calf, stick out it’s tongue and hiss. And then yesterday, I got a massive cramp in my upper back that has been radiating pain into my neck. Let me repeat…arrrgh!!!

So why the cramping? Likely, I’ve been neglecting one of the following:

  1. Proper hydration–likely, since I drink 2-3 cups of coffee per day and probably haven’t been getting my daily two liter water replenish
  2. Magnesium–night cramps are often due to low calcium, but otherwise, think low magnesium
  3. Electrolyte imbalance–nothing a few Gatorades can’t help

Which one? My guess is it’s mostly a hydration issue, with the other two playing a minor part. I have since been a little more conscious of my water intake, started taking magnesium, and I’ll hit the G on my next couple of workouts.

For the current spasms–hot water bottle, chiropractic adjustment, massage (localized and short, five minutes…spouse’s job), some bite the bullet, you get it.

Water Drinkers Called Fools

By On · Add Comment · In debunk, dehydrated, diuretic, evidence, hydration, hyponatremia, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, myth, urinate, water
I just love when these stories come out. You know, the ones that say a particular physiological fact is false. Take, for instance, the claim that taking vitamin supplements is unnecessary. Always the claim, “…there’s no proof.” Or how about the efficacy of chiropractic–“…no proof.”  Yeah, yeah, the proof’s there–it’s in the pudding as they say.

But back to the silly notion of claiming certain physiological facts to be untrue. A new study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology apparently “debunks” the myth that drinking lots of water is better for your health. I tell you I just love these stories. Start off with a subject matter that is fact–All living things need water to survive–add a corollary which is nonsensical, and then disprove it. Next take the faulty conclusions derived from the debunking, and use them to deflate an entire principle, one which we can easily deduce as true. The only thing I don’t get is…why? Well, let’s figure it out.

Two nephrologists (kidney doctors) out of the University of Pennsylvania have “reviewed the scientific literature” and have found no conclusive evidence that drinking more water equals better health. Oy vey. First off, the idea that drinking “lots” of water is healthy is absurd. It is quite well known that one can drink too much water. This can lead to hyponatremia–low sodium concentration–which can kill you. So there probably isn’t any credible health care practitioner recommending this practice. “Hey Vern, drink five gallons of water every day–you’ll be Superman.” It’s so stupid, it’s almost embarrassing; but clearly it has to be addressed.

Then there’s the idea of drinking “more” water. More than what? Do the esteemed researchers mean more than necessary? Well then, of course one doesn’t need to drink more. Is it too much to ask of our scientists but to pose viable questions? Because if we are talking about the average American, the one that imbibes soda more than any other beverage, then the notion of more water probably means “more than what you’re drinking now.” As even the two medical investigators point out in their paper: people who live in hot, dry climates, athletes, and people with certain diseases do better with increased fluid intake. So, basically, we can extrapolate these facts to anybody who exercises, sweats a lot, takes meds that make them urinate (diuretics), drinks beverages that make them urinate (coffee, tea, alcohol), or in other words…just about everybody.

Wait Campos. That’s not true. No evidence.

What evidence do we have? That they haven’t done any significant studies on hydration levels of populations; nor have they done any looking at the effects of water replenishment in people who are subclinically dehydrated (read my book); nor have they done any measurements on organ function or dysfunction at different hydration levels. But they have looked at hydration levels and endurance in athletes. Did the two doctors look at these studies? I know, I know, those are athletes. But I think it applies to everyone–we just don’t have the studies showing it, yet. And because it would simply be dangerous (and thus unethical) to knowingly deprive humans of water (can you guess why?), we probably will never see those studies.

So here’s my problem: Why even publish such rubbish? I mean, even the authors admit that, “If someone enjoys it…that’s wonderful, keep doing it. They’re not doing anything that’s going to hurt them.” Bingo! So why bother? If what they say is true, then why go through the trouble of debunking a so-called myth. I really don’t know; but I can tell you one thing: the doctors who wasted their valuable grant money putting together this deficient drivel didn’t really think about water’s full role in the body, or in life itself. They certainly didn’t ask any revealing questions. All they did was ask if certain beliefs about water had been studied, and found that they had not–that’s all. They didn’t prove or disprove anything about this elixir of life. But, unfortunately, they are passing their findings off as an unveiling of great truth; and I just don’t think they’ve come anywhere close.

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