A question for any athletes out there.  I love endurance sport (running, cycling, triathlon), and have never worried over much about hydration (I don't drink during a half marathon, for instance, never feeling the need to drink for "just" a 90 minute run).  Will I have to take more care after going on Spiro?  Will my electrolytes be more delicate?  Any of you girls have any experience of this?

That's one of the things my Dr  warned me about when I started Spiro. It will get you dehydrated if you don't consciously take steps to balance your liquid intake and eelectrolytes. Pay attention to what your body is telling you. Being naturally an active person, I drink a lot of water, but since I started Spiro, even more. I don't like sugary drinks, but if I feel dehydrated I would have a sports drink or nowadays they have electrolytes tablets that dissolve in water. I don't drink when I run either, but I try to stay well hydrates all the time.

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Yes, I have a lot of experience with this as I'm taking a high spiro dose and working out a lot in the Georgia summer. 

What I have found is that with proper maintenance preparation the spiro doesn't effect me much.  If it's 90+ degrees I still can go around 40 min before heart rate drift becomes a real issue.  At around 70 to 80 degrees that time is about an hour.  At cooler temps there isn't a real issue at all. 

These times are really pretty similar to before HRT.  I can sweat two liters an hour in the summer so the heat has never been a lot of fun to run in at any time.

What I mean by proper maintenance and preparation is that you really need to load on the salt.  I have self experimented a lot with it and found about 6000 mg of salt a day keeps everything in balance.  If I drop that to even 4000 mg I start to feel lightheaded after a few days.  Second, I take about 1000 mg of salt, 1/2 tsp, in a glass of water before I go to workout. 

I have also found that about a gallon of liquid every day is necessary along with a magnesium supplement.

The most recent research is showing that the current recommended daily salt intake is inadequate for nearly everyone and especially inadequate for anyone that works out.


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You certainly will get dehydrated in a half marathon if you don't hydrate during it. 

You don't even have to be exercising to get dehydrated.  Yesterday, my wife and I drove down the valley to visit some friends.  We were gone for five hours, and I only had a glass of fizzy juice for hydration.  My mouth felt like the Gobi desert when I got home.

On spiro, you are dehydrated all the time.  All you can do is keep pouring the fluids in, but they pour out just as fast.  Okay, that is probably also a consideration on a distance run.  You might need to accept some dehydration in order to avoid unscheduled pit stops.  It is going to be a balancing act between consuming enough fluids to finish the race while keeping fluid intake low enough to avoid bathroom stops.

[edit] Interesting about the salt, Deborah.  I'll have to look into that.

Thank you.


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6k mg on top of what comes from food?

For those like me who get their visuals in the kitchen:

Quote1500 mg of sodium amounts to 0.75 teaspoons or 3.75 grams of salt per day, while 2300 mg amounts to one teaspoon or 6 grams of salt per day.

That's manageable for me.  On Saturday I tried drinking salt water and had a migraine at the end of the day and aching joints.  I've never bothered counting anything, calories or otherwise, but will find a 6k mg vial to measure this stuff out, just like another medication.

I'm not dehydrated to any noticeable degree since starting low dose HRT two months ago; I have had a couple of episodes of severe sodium loss that snuck up on me.  I'm not super active physically though, and have stuck to my quite low sodium diet.

Hmm, my spellchecker doesn't recognize "snuck."  Speak Yank!   

Quote from: Lucy Ross on September 04, 2017, 06:24:55 PM
6k mg on top of what comes from food?

I try to eat 6k mg total including it from all sources.  Since I eat nearly all unprocessed foods I have to add a lot.

6k mg is about three full tsp.  Fortunately, salt water tastes good to me so I can get 1 or 2k mg that way.  I also cook a bouillon cube or two which is 1k mg each.

Also, I don't obsess over it too much unless I start feeling weak and dizzy.  So, sometimes I come up short.  On the other hand, sometimes I go way over if I do eat some processed food.  I have gotten as high as 11k mg in a day without any ill effects including no effect on my blood pressure.

I have found though that if I cut it below 4K mg for more than a few days I'll start feeling bad.



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Also, I've been eating this much salt all this year.  My latest blood test from two weeks ago had my blood sodium level right at the bottom of the normal range.  So, it doesn't seem to be too much.  Potassium was towards the top of the normal range.


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Thanks Deborah, that clears things up big time.  I'm not really who this thread is aimed at though, I walk about a ton but that's it.

Do you think a Guide To HRT thread would be welcome here?  I don't know why it would be banned, we're talking about dosages of salt and water, etc.  A collaborative effort to put together a guidebook on what needs to be done when taking these medications, pluses and minuses of the various delivery systems, changes in diet that will be needed, possible side effects, etc.  Our doctors tell us as much as they can but there's always some minor detail that gets passed over.