adapting with heat/dehydration on hot areas
 

Any experiences to share adapting with heat and dehydration possibilities on hot areas?

To drink lot of water, yes, but is there special salt to eat needed too to restore normal body's metabolics?

Thanks in advance, Margus

Margus, go to this site and read up on this exact problem.
Norm

http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/c...m?pagenumber=1

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Namron '04 F650GSA, '03 Yamaha Venture, Calgary, Alberta Canada.
Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

[This message has been edited by Namron (edited 06 June 2005).]

Look at the locals diet and try to copy it.

As I mentioned somewhere in the forums, I'll travel Middle East too. I am thinking about buying a cooler (fridge) which works with 12V adepter and put it instead of my topbox with a good outerbox. Do you folks think it may work?


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ride safely
ozhan u.
www.ozhanu.com

Ozhanu
I can't really see the point in a fridge!
Get a good capacity CamelBak and arrange to have ice ready each morning (from hotels or restaurants). Fill the CamelBak as much as possible with the ice and top it up with water.

Later in the day you'll still be able to buy chilled water from shops everywhere. Locals like their drinks cool too!
Stephan

I plan on a daily ratio of 3 liters of water to 1 liter of powdered sports drink(Gatorade Brand seems to work the best).I normally go thru 0.5- 1 liters per hour,using a camelback hydration pack.Don't put sport drinks into your Camelback as the sugar content will cause bacteria to grow inside the plastic bladder.I've found that drinking ice cold water can cause stomach cramping(although it does taste better).Staying hydrated is very important in the desert heat.Also follow the practice of the locals and stay covered up,this will greatly reduce dehydration.

You can drink all the water you want, but if you don't replace the chemical balance in your body it can kill you!
Go this borrowed topic and read the story.
Norm

http://www.klr650.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=383

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Namron '04 F650GSA, '03 Yamaha Venture, Calgary, Alberta Canada.
Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

[This message has been edited by Namron (edited 07 June 2005).]

Yes, that's what i was referring - salts!

Only too much water will wash them away and can have bad endings.

So looks like the best reciepe is to have proper amount of various electrolyte's (i.e. salts) with you to eat constantly?

Margus

Taking extra salt in your luggage.....????

The camelbag is key. Siegrid and I both have one and we drink a lot while riding.
As extra we also have each a 5l jerrycan with water. We needed it on some occasions in Syria and Jordan.
We always buy bottled water.

We make sure we eat divers and thus taking in all the necesarry minerals. Need extra salts or sugars?
Go to a local market and buy yourself a bag of salty nuts and a bag of local sweets.

Yes, water in the camelbag will get warm. And the water from the jerrycans was warm enough for a shower.
BUT in hot \ warm conditions warm water / drinks are better for your body then icy cold. It can better and faster absorb warmer fluids then colder onces. Get used to drinking warm water.

[This message has been edited by fireboomer (edited 24 June 2005).]

Hi,
There are 1, 1.5, 2 and 3 liters of CamelBak's. Which one do you recommend? I am thinking about to buy 2 lt. ones. Would it be enough? I am also consider to carrying an extra 5lt of water.

thanks


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ride safely
ozhan u.
www.ozhanu.com

Assuming that you're riding between towns on well travelled roads,then I would go with a 2 liter Camelback+10 liters(divided into two cannisters) per day.This would give you enough water for a long day plus a safety margin for unexpected delays.A mechanical problem,getting lost,or bad road conditions can easily push your water reserves.I tend to drink a lot of water,and your needs may be different.I've yet to meet anyone who regretted hauling too much water in the desert heat.

If you are wary of the local water supply and drinking bottled water, remember that ice can be just as contaminated. Make sure your ice is from a purified source.

Good point. Anytime you are in the third world, always wash the water before you drink it.

Michael

Drinking really ice cold drinks can actually drain your bodies energy reserves as it 1st needs to warm up the liquid before it goes any further, hence your heart pumps faster to warm it up, its also known that a nice cuppa tea, not coffee is a thirst quencher, but I have to admit that there is nothing better than a good chilled beer/larger on a hot day, this we were taught in the army and there were no fridges in SWA (Namibia) and Angola at that time, as for food army rations are the best for space and quick preparation, ll the energy and nutritions you'll ever need..

beer, tea, coffee and coke will all make you more dehydrated as they make you pee more (due to the cafeine). thats one of the things that causes a hangover after you have been out on the lash! avoid drinking water excessively as this can also knacker you kidneys. It used to be said, pee clear twice a day. this is no longer held to be the case. In really hot conditions if you pee clear you are drnking too much. It should be light orange, golden! ladies need to check as well, it is your first indicator as to how (de)hydrated you are. You should pee a lot more than twice a day as well. once the body has removed the useful stuff it will chuck the waste, the more you need, the more waste, the more you pee. In the middle east at over 60C that mean't peeing up to 8 times a day (and getting up in the night once or twice).
It is a fine balancing act, and remember, you aren't drinking because it tastes nice, or even to slake your thirst, your drinking to stay alive, so even if you hate the taste of hot water, drink it. It has to be a consious effort, by the time your body prompts tou, your already very dehydrated. don't run in a negative balance either, because if you do and you get sick your really going to be in trouble.

watch your body and the way it reacts, then plan accordingly, people are very different in how much water they will need. some may manage on 5 litres while others need 12. On our recent trip to the sahara the drivers were consuming more than double what the navigators were.

Andy
TLC H60
Landy101Ambie/camper
1968 morris minor traveller

• Hot water is less upsetting to your stomach than cold
• Small gulps of water often rather than large quantities seldom is much better for both your stomach and the hydration of youyr body
• You will naturally salt your food more heavily in hot climates, and extra salts in your water should not be deemed necessary, but do bring some rehydration packs for emergencies, or for when you really feel dehydrated. You'll know if you've got too little salt in your body if you feel you're dehydrated but still need to urinate a lot. At this point you are drinking enough, but your body won't absorb it.
• You know you are getting dehydrated if your urine is dark (it should be clear). Now you are drinking too little. At this point your concentration will drop, you will feel more exhausted, and you will get headakes... and big gulps of water won't make it go away, it takes time, and lots of fluids. Beyond this point, and you are getting into trouble. Rehydration packs, sport drinks, or even sweet soft drinks, will do you good.
• Go all out on the sweets, and have some salty nuts while you are at it.
• If conditions are extreme, cover your skin thouroughly to trap moisture/sweat, and protect your skin from the sun (touaregs walk all day on just a couple of cups of water, where as you drink like a fish on the same distance, and clothes play a big part).

As for tea, it does not contain caffein as suggested or as is commonly thought, but teeine (English spelling?). The chemical teeine is somewhat similar to caffeine, but from what I've heard, tea does not make you pee in the same way as coffee, as many people do believe. Personally, I've never noticed an effect when drinking tea. In the army we were allowed tea, but not coffe (we are not a tea drinking nation, so no bias involved here).

Do keep in mind that locals do drink a lot of super sweet tea... well, that's not entirely true, they spend a lot of time drinking it, with all sorts of tea sermonies and such, but not a whole lot actually gets drunk. Touaregs drink tea on their great camel treks. Good enough for them, good enough for me. Many herbal teas does not even contain teeine, but may contain other chemicals having a similar effect. There are also cleansing herbal teas (make you go to the bathromm big time) or teas that are designed to calm your nerves or to put you to sleep.

Stay away from alcohol

definately concur with much of the above, little and often is best, warm drinks are better than cold (some say you notice the heat more with cold drinks, maybe something to do with cooling the body core leading to peripheral vasodilation - who knows?). Extra salt in you water is uneccessary and too much salt will increase you dehydration and mess up you electrolyte balance. Isotonic saline (ie in tune with the bodies normal level) is just a 0.9% solution. don't forget your other electrolytes such as potassium (found in bananas), this is where sports drinks come in to their own. headaches are my first BIG indicator I am a bit dry, but individuals vary, some may only get headaches when seriously dehydrated.

As per my previous post, if you pee clear in extreme heat your drinking too much, incidently this is current British Army doctrine,. The pee clear thing was binned a couple of years ago after experience in the middle east, where soldiers were getting ill through drinking too much trying, aim for a pale orange. tea isn't as dehydrating as coffee or coke because of lower levels of cafeine (or whatever you want to call it) but it is still a poor rehydrate. I don't know what touareg tea is made of, but pg tips it aint! Personally drinking army tea always seemed to make me dehydrated, or maybe the green kit sucked moisture from me! it made me pee orange and it smelt like sugar puffs!! Try drinking half a dozen cups of tea in the morning (assuming your not used to it) and then see how much you pee! I would suggest the effect is a lot more pronounced than if you drank the equivalent in water. Drinking things like this can also misslead you, because it increases your diuresis (body's conversion of fluid) it will make you pee a lot clearer than you should be for your given state of hydration. That doesn't mean don't drink them (I am a tea-aholic), just be aware of the effect it has on YOUR body. what the locals do, in this case, isn't all that relevant. they have lived here all their life, and for generations before. their bodies are adapted, their metabolism is different, their clothing is different and they don't do daft things like ride bikes across the desert for fun (mad dogs and englishmen! (ok, and others!))

Andy