Quelling swilling-induced swelling
For a long time, I've been just about the lone voice in the forest when it comes to excessive water consumption. And in my opinion, anything beyond simply drinking when you're thirsty is excessive. Needless to say, I'm aware of the fact that I starkly contrast to the mainstream on this - they recommend an absurd eight glasses of water a day. That's half a gallon or more!
No wonder there's a water shortage in this country - it's all sloshing around in health fanatics' bellies and bladders.
And as overboard as the mainstream is on the average person's daily water needs, they're especially misguided about what those who exercise require in the way of H20. To hear them tell it, if you're jogging (joint-pulverizing lunacy) or lifting weights (not as bad, but still easy to overdo), no amount of water is too much to drink, it seems.
Never mind the fact that drinking too much water during periods of exertion can flush your body of sodium and lead to hyponatremia, or "water intoxication" - a condition where the sodium-starved brain swells against the skull until nausea, weakness, seizures and in extreme cases coma and death ensue. And potassium deficiency (hypokalemia) is even worse.
Don't think it doesn't happen. In 2002, a pair of female runners perished of the syndrome following marathon races because they drank too much liquid during their runs. And according to a recent Associated Press article, officials at last year's Houston Marathon cut in half the number of water stops along the way. Why? Because the past few years have seen a DRAMATIC INCREASE in the number of hyponatremia cases trickling into medical tents at the finish line. According to the piece, runners were incensed at the decision - yet fewer of them ended up with the condition this year than in years past.
A few years ago, the number-one concern of marathoners and triathletes was dehydration. But thankfully, some exercise authorities are starting to sound the alarm about excessive water consumption. One leading international expert, a Professor of Sports Science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and author of dozens of articles about the perils of overdrinking, sums it up like this in the AP piece: Your body instinctively knows when it needs water, so drink only when thirsty…
Hmmm. Wonder where we've heard that before?
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Cancer detection goes to the dogs
Not to be indelicate, but canines have always had a thing for sniffing the excreta - both solid and liquid - of other animals, including humans. Any dog owner knows this, and takes great pains to hustle his or her mutt past piles or puddles of any such substances they encounter.
But it is exactly this innate fascination - and the amazing power of man's best friend's olfactory system - that may lead to a new method of diagnosing cancer, according to a recent Nature.com article. Responding to anecdotal reports from dog owners about their pets' unusual reactions to moles or body sores which later turned out to be malignant tumors, a group of UK researchers has trained a half-dozen dogs of various breeds to detect bladder cancer by SNIFFING PATIENTS' URINE!
Their theory is that cancerous cells develop chemicals which have an identifiable smell, and that minute amounts of the compounds which cause this "odor signature" exit the body in the urine - especially in cases of bladder, kidney and urinary tract cancers. And as it turns out, dogs can be trained to recognize and react to this smell. In just the initial trials, these cancer-detective canines were right more than 40% of the time. In time, who knows what other kinds of cancers canines might be trained or bred to alert us to - or how accurately.
Similar American research conducted at Florida State University concluded that dogs can aid in the detection of skin cancers. I wouldn't get carried away with this. "Right more than 40 percent of the time" isn't all that great. It means there were 60 percent false negatives. But it is worth continued investigation.
Will dogs replace Oncologists and pathologists? Of course not. But one thing's for certain: If your dog starts sniffing at your skin, legs, or private areas in a weird or different way, it might be a good idea to go to the doctor.
If you end up with an early, treatable diagnosis because of it, your "best friend" may have just saved your life.
Always sniffing out the truth,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
