# Electrolyte replacement and  toxicity, need articles.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrolyte-replacement-and-toxicity-need-articles/841394>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 7, 2019, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrolyte-replacement-and-toxicity-need-articles/841394 "2019-10-07T06:39:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrolyte-replacement-and-toxicity-need-articles/841394/1 "2019-10-07T06:39:44Z")

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Hi y’all, asking for a friend and my google-fu isn’t working well today. I’m after either a study (layman’s terms only) or a news article about someone who experienced electrolyte overdose after taking replacement drinks. Can you point me in the right direction please?

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrolyte-replacement-and-toxicity-need-articles/841394/2 "2019-10-07T08:09:34Z")

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[uptodate.com](http://uptodate.com) [says](https://www.uptodate.com/contents/oral-rehydration-therapy),

> [@](#):
>
> Although oral rehydration therapy (ORT) was first introduced in 1945, its use declined because of reports of multiple cases of hypernatremia due to the use of oral rehydration solution (ORS) with inappropriately high carbohydrate levels [1]. However, the success of intravenous (IV) hydration in decreasing mortality and morbidity in children with diarrhea in developing countries led to renewed efforts in the 1960s to develop an effective ORT that would be less expensive and easier to administer [2,3]. Subsequently, improvements in ORS formulations have led to ORT’s successful use in treating hypovolemia caused by gastroenteritis [4-6]. (See ‘Efficacy’ below.)

So, maybe start with reference 1 for some of those reports.

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**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrolyte-replacement-and-toxicity-need-articles/841394/3 "2019-10-07T17:03:26Z")

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[Here’s](https://www.precisionhydration.com/blogs/hydration_advice/can-you-overdose-on-sports-drink) an article, and [here’s](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308170593_Secret_Stories_of_Sodium_-_Hypernatremia) the paper it references. Not sure how much use they are going to be, as they don’t exactly address the issue head on.

I had no idea you could get hypernatremia (as opposed to hyponatremia) as a result of exercise. But it strikes me that if someone who already has high sodium levels then takes oral electrolytes, that could possibly be an issue. But IANAD - you need to be paging **Qadgop the Mercotan** on this.

j