I have a friend on my football(soccer)team who drinks gatorade constantly, were talking breakfast, lunch and dinner, all the time. He recently got a stone and the doctor claimed it was from the high sodium content in gatorade and recommended against drinking it in mass quantities. Anybody else ever hear of this sort of thing?
I doubt it. Gatorade is relatively low in sodium. One glass of Gatorade has about the same amount of sodium as a slice of bread. Do people who eat lots of sandwiches get kidney stones?
It is true, though, that a high salt (sodium) intake can contribute to kidney stones. It is also true that getting dehydrated (say by not replenishing fluids during/following exercise) can also contribute to kidney stones.
Interestingly, even though msot kidney stones are made of calcium, a high calcium intake does not promote kidney stones.
I for one would be interested in a cite for this. I’ve has kidney stones twice, and my doctor told me it was related to my constant ingestion of Tums and Rolaids, which of course are nasty little pellets of calcium grit.
I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure that you should only drink Gatorade immediately before, during, or after something that will make you sweat a lot. Gatorade is chock full of electrolytes which are depleted when you sweat. Drinking it at other times doesn’t do you a bit of good. Additionally, I believe that all electrolytes can form salts and any big chunk o’ salt can be a kidney stone.
All of you have just ruined my day.
Typically you’re recommended to water Gatorade down by half before drinking it. Taking it straight during or after athletic activity is not a good idea because the high sugar content makes it take longer to be absorbed by your body. The guy who got the stone can’t possibly be drinking it to be athletic. He probably just likes the taste.
I’d like the cite also. My husband has had kidney stones a few times and the doc ALWAYS said it was definately related to his milk-drinking and Tums habit. Now that he’s on Prevacid for the acid reflux, he doesn’t need the Tums anymore, but he still drinks a lot of milk.
This is the paper I was referring to when I said that a high calcium diet does not promote kidney stones. This is the accompanying editorial.
The New England Journal of Medicine is of very high quality and can be respected (if not trusted).
This actually just happened to me. I drank nothing but Gatorade for about 3-4 months and just got over a stone that lasted months. There was no other change in my diet but this and I am positive that the gatorade caused it.
In case this stays open, and in case anybody is still interested in the paper that showed dietary calcium intake is inversely associated with the incidence of kidney stones, here is the new link (the one above is no longer working).
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I don’t think there’s any need to reopen a GQ thread that’s been dormant for 11 years to add this anecdote. I’ve closed this thread, and you may feel free to start a discussion in a different forum, or rephrase your anecdote to be a GQ question.
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