Sports Science
Rehydration
Is water a poison?
Two things influence the rate at which water is absorbed into the blood, the rate at which water is emptied from the stomach and the rate at which it passes through the wall of the small intestine. Drinks with a high sugar content take a great deal of time to empty into the small intestine from the stomach. A drink which has, about, 6% sugar is absorbed at the same rate as water but anything higher will take longer to be absorbed.
As sweat pours
from the sweat glands, in response to high temperatures, electrolytes
such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, bicarbonate,
phosphate and sulphate are also lost from the body. Electrolytes are charged
atoms or molecules that are essential to the body in, relatively, small
quantities.
