Gary - should I take the extra tissue salts before or after the exercise?

"Gary - should I take the extra tissue salts before or after the exercise?"
Isobel
____________________________
Gary:
Isobel,
Take 2 of each per day of your prescribed Active Elements (Or as per the prescription advice I have given you in the most recent report)  and repeat the online assessment about every 8 weeks. I will review the results and report to you with any adjustments.

Active 3.1 is the best one to take before, during and after exercise (such as a 2 hr run or 3-4 hr cycle in heat) because it contains the salts most often depleted during hard exercise and sweating.  If you are a light sweater then you may only need one before, during and after an hour or longer of heavy exercise.  If you are a very heavy sweater, then you might take one or two more on top of that.  If your current prescription does not include Active 3.1, and you are exercising hard in heat, such as marathon training voer summer, then add Active 3.1 to your list.

Ensure you are well hydrated.  Read my articles about hydration and consider purchasing a Salter 9106 Body Compostition Analyser Scale.  These are selling about half retail from my website store for the time being.

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Update about how to replace electrolytes lost from sweating and exercise

This is an update to my earlier article on the subject of electrolyte replacement during endurance activities, like running or walking a marathon, or long hikes in warm conditions.

We receive daily advice from all directions to drink so many glasses of water per day and so many mls of additional water for every hour or so of exercise. I think this is unhealthy advice because rote advice about drinking makes no allowances for temperature, humidity, the size of the person, their physiology or the intensity of the exercise. When exercising in the same conditions, some people need to drink lots while others need very little.

If you are exercising regularly and sweating a lot then you need to drink at least as much water as you lose in a session. You can work out how much water is lost in an exercise session by weighing yourself before and after. If, for example, you drank one liter (1kg) of water during a long walk and you still lost one kilogram in weight, this equates to a two liter loss of water with a one liter deficit. So, you need to drink one liter of water - and a little more - in the hour or so after your walk. Do this weighing exercise now and then and you will develop a very good feel for how much to drink during exercise.

Learn to listen to your body.Rather than have sugary sports drinks that rot your teeth and gums and predispose you to diabetes, you are better served by drinking plain water and consuming whole foods that are rich in protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins and carbohydrates - and minerals. It makes no sense at all to drink and eat nutrient poor processed carbohydrate foods, like sweets and noodles. Sugary sports drinks may be extremely acidic and laced with bright colourings and strong flavouring agents that have nothing to do with good health. Some sports drinks come with added "revitalising B vitamins". But they omit telling you that they have left out the B vitamins that make the drink look like urine. The resultant vitamin imbalance is hardly healthy.

Dr Les Fisher, is a leading authority in Australia on tissue salt therapies. I asked Dr Fisher for his recommendations about electrolyte replacement before, during and after strenuous exercise such as walking a marathon, or a day-long hike in warm conditions. Dr Fisher recommends taking one tissue salt tablet before exercise; one or two more during exercise - depending on the sweating rate - then one or two more after.

The tissue salts Dr Fisher is talking about contain small amounts of sodium phosphate (NaPO4), potassium phosphate (KPO4) and magnesium Phosphate (MgPO4). These salts help relieve cramps and reduce tissue acidity during exercise.

Of course, there is considerable variability in need depending on the person and the conditions. The best way to know how much suits you is to practice Dr Fisher’s advice during your training, weighing yourself as you go and adjusting things depending on weight changes from fluid loss and how you feel.

Drink as much water as is necessary to maintain body weight. Spread the tablets well apart so the body receives a slow dribble of the tissue salts, rather than a big hit. The only fluid needed is good old plain tap water and this is replaced as one loses it. If you are preparing for a really exhausting event in heat like a marathon, or a multi-day bush hike, then you might commence the supplementation several times over the day leading up to the event. Again, you spread the tablets well apart.

Note: These special tablets contain very small amounts of three different salts. The only effect on blood pressure will be beneficial.Tip: If you begin to cramp up during prolonged exercise, such as walking a marathon or a long hike, Dr Fisher suggests you place a single salt tablet under the tongue and let it slowly dissolve. This way, most of the salt is absorbed sublingually (Through the profusion of blood vessels of the cheeks and under the tongue), straight into the blood stream. Drink plenty of plain water as you go, according to thirst, and you will do just right!

Listen to your body.

Notes:

• The Active Elements Formula that is referred to in this article is Active 3.1.
• For weighing yourself there is nothing more accurate in the home than the Salter 9106 Body Compostion Scales. These are selling off my web store for a song for the time-being (up to $140 in the shops).

Do you have a question?
Email Gary: gary at myotec.co.nz (Replace the "at" with @ and remove spaces). Please include any relevant background information to your question.

"Drink more water, drink, drink, drink".

That's the message we hear time and time again from the sports fitness industry and the commercial interests that have a vested interest in promoting the sales of bottled water. They tell us that the key to health and longevity is to drink more water, but is this really true?

The problem is, when dealing with people face-to-face about health issues, I just can not see a connection between how much water one drinks and health. The opposite might be the case: The more water one drinks, the more likely there are chronic health issues like lack of energy, weight gain, weak bones, aching joints and muscles and so on. How could this be? The following is some informed, healthy speculation:

The answer may be to do with distortion of the delicate salt balance within each cell. There are 12 salts found inside the cell (Referred to as the "salts of Schussler"): Sodium phosphate, sodium, sulphate, sodium chloride, potassium phosphate, potassium sulphate, potassium chloride, calcium phosphate, calcium sulphate, calcium fluoride, iron phosphate and silicon dioxide.

Too little of any of these salts, or an imbalance, and the health of the cell is compromised and this shows as failing energy and eventual ill health of all descriptions.

The modern diet lacks most of these salts while supplying enormous amounts of sodium chloride. Tissue salts are lost daily through the urine, sweat and the shedding of skin and hair. If one drinks lots of water, especially if it is distilled, precious tissue salts are flushed out of the system. Some medications, like blood pressure diuretics, accelerate this loss of tissue salts.

If there is insufficient of any of the 12 tissue salts in the cells, the cell reduces its water content to maintain as near a healthy salt electrolyte balance as it can in these less than perfect circumstances. If there is an excess of any of the 12 salts in relation to the others, the excess is discarded while those in short supply are retained to ensure the correct concentration is retained within the cells. This explains why the percentage hydration of the body tends to decline with age: The desperate attempts of the body to maintain a viable salt balance.

The graphs associated with this article are of people of differing age, gender, fitness and health. These are the results of "bioelectrical impedance analysis" (BIA) which allows us to work out the ratios of fat, muscle, bone and water in the body. With age, the percent water in the cells tends to decline from a healthy 60+% to 50% or even lower. But this need not be the inevitable result of ageing, as these charts indicate. Tissue dehydration is more closely associated with a diet that is deficient in the tissue salts, inactivity and ill health than age. Incidentally, all of the people graphed with tissue water 60% or greater have undergone a course of tissue salt therapy.

The answer, to me, is to have a diet that is rich in salts, as opposed to industrially processed foods that tend to be soaked in sodium chloride alone. This pretty much equates to the traditional diets of native societies as one would find in places like Samoa and Okinawa prior to the destructive influence of Western food processing. For most of us, a course in supplementing tissue salts would appear to be warranted, especially as we get older. Get this right and the water issue pretty much takes care of itself.

So, how much water should one drink to be healthy? The answer is different for each person because so much depends on size (volume), metabolism, temperature, humidity, type of activity, duration and so on. A general of thumb is to drink sufficient water daily to be peeing 3-6 times a day while not having to get up in the middle of the night due to a bursting bladder. I will write in more detail in a follow up article.

Note: For more information about the importance of tissue salts for health, try a Google or Yahoo internet search for "Active Elements Gary Moller". To do the free Active Elements Assessment which includes a free report prepared by me (Gary Moller), please go here to log in and get started.

Footnote:
You can now easily monitor subtle changes in body composition (And therefore your overall state of health) and you can do this at home. All you need is a body composition analyser - The

Salter 9106. These personal weighing scales with body composition analysis technology costs less than $100. They are remarkably accurate and consistent and use a technology that cost almost $5,000 for just a few years ago. Such is the progress of technology. You can purchase the Salter 9106 from my online store here at a significant discount. Or you can search for them in a store near you (Salter is an international brand). You need the 9106 model which is the machine I use and which my results database is collected from.

The Salter 9106 accurately measures weight, fat, bone, water, and muscle - thus providing an accurate measure of health status. As one's health diminishes, fatness usually increases while hydration and leanness decreases. The converse is true as health improves.

Do you have a question?
Email Gary: gary at myotec.co.nz (Replace the "at" with @ and remove spaces). Please include any relevant background information to your question.

Training for a marathon or cycle training - Advice about what to drink

If you are a training regularly and sweating a lot then you need to drink at least as much water as you lose in a session. You can work out how much water is lost in a training session by weighing yourself before and after. If, for example, you drank one liter of water during the training and you still lost one kilogram in weight, that equates to a two liter loss of water during the training with a one liter deficit. So, that means you need to drink one liter of water - and a little more - in the hour or so after exercise.

Rather than have sugary drinks and foods after the training and competition which rot your teeth and gums, predispose you to diabetes and chronic nutrient deficiency, an athlete is better served drinking plain water and consuming food that is rich in protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins and carbohydrates - and minerals. My Super Smoothie recipe for example.

It makes no sense at all to drink and eat nutrient poor processed carbohydrate foods and sugary sports drinks that are often extremely acidic and laced with colourings and flavourings. Some sports drinks come with "revitalising B vitamins". But they omit telling you that they have left out the B vitamins that make the drink urine coloured. This is hardly healthy.

I spoke with Dr Les Fisher, the man behind the Active Elements programme. For electrolyte replacement before, during and after exercise, he recommends taking one Active Elements 3.1 tablet before the exercise. During the exercise the athlete can take one or two more depending on the sweating rate and then one or two after. The only fluid needed is good old plain water. If it is in preparation for a really exhausting event like a marathon, or the cycling or triathlon equivalent, then the athlete might commence the Active 3.1 supplementation several times over the day leading up to the event.

Active 3.1 contains the tissue mineral salts most needed during intense exercise and heavy sweating for strong circulation and to prevent or relieve muscle cramping - Sodium Phosphate, Potassium Phosphate and Magnesium Phosphate.

During exercise, such as running a marathon or half marathon, the athlete can place the Active 3.1 tablet under the tongue and let it gradually dissolve. This way, some of the salt is absorbed sub lingually (Through the profusion of blood vessels under the tongue), straight into the blood stream.


Do you have a question?
Email Gary: gary at myotec.co.nz (Replace the "at" with @ and remove spaces). Please include any relevant background information to your question.