Hello out there...
Has anyone made their own electrolyte concoction to help address low blood volume, dehydration, etc?
I've been searching the past couple of days for a good "safe" electrolyte replacement / rehydration product, a la Cheney's ancient Gookinaid recipe, to help with low blood volume, orthostatic intolerance, cramps, twitching spasms, etc., -- but so far can't seem to find one that doesn't have some sort of artificially sweetened/colored/flavored junk in it.
The closest I came to one was a formula developed by NASA for astronauts who experience low blood volume upon returning to earth (an estimated 80% of them).
"To help address this concern, astronauts traditionally tried to rehydrate before and after landing by taking salt tablets with water. (Sodium helps regulate extracellular fluid volume.) This method, though, proved inconvenient and unpleasant for the astronauts, as well as impractical in space where water supplies are limited. The high levels of sodium in the tablets could even lead to greater dehydration if not managed carefully.
After years of extensive Agency research and testing, Ames Research Center physiologist Dr. John Greenleaf developed and patented a better alternative: an electrolyte concentrate composed of a specific ratio of sodium chloride and sodium citrate. The isotonic formula, containing optimal proportions of water and salts for absorption into the body, provides for fast, easy, and effective rehydration in amounts practical for use in space. Astronauts currently use the patented formula on missions."
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2009/hm_9.html
Yes, we're not up in space, but the recipe has been tweaked for use by Earth dwellers...
The tweaked recipe sounds generally ideal -- with one major flaw -- the commercial version ("The Right Stuff") has Splenda (Sucralose) in it, which is a synthetic frankenfood made from sugar and CHLORINE. Some folks may tolerate this, but a quick google search will turn up horror stories that sound like symptoms of fibro and CFS/ME. I was given some Pedialyte a few years ago when I got some sort of stomach flu, and wolfed it down. When I woke up the next day I was in pain from head to toe, literally. It was then that I saw that Splenda was one of the ingredients. And they give this stuff to babies...oy.
It's worth noting that that the original NASA formula did not contain Splenda/Sucralose -- that was just added to the commercial product "The Right Stuff".
Anyway, the ingredients are:
Filtered Water
Sea Salt - Electrolytes (Sodium & Chloride) - NASA patented blend
Sodium Citrate - Electrolytes (Sodium & Citrate) - NASA patented blend
Citric Acid - For flavor, to help offset saltiness and also natural preservative
and then "the Right Stuff" added the Sucralose and flavors, preservatives.
That's one formulation...
Then there's Recup-eration, the formulation developed by Alfred Blasi, that has:
Sodium citrate
Potassium chloride
Sodium chloride
and smaller amouts of...
Magnesium carbonate
Calcium phosphate
...which one adds to water.
I used to take use this -- it was surprisingly helpful, and the little packets lasted forever -- but it can only be purchased from Spain (or was it Italy) -- so it was pretty costly, so I ran out a year or two back and forgot about it until now.
Mark London wasn't so sure about Recup's effects, but acknowledged that "some of Recuperat-ion’s beneficial effects, may be due to the alkalinizing property of sodium citrate, which will then increase calcium and magnesium retention."
http://stuff.mit.edu/people/london/RRR.html
I remember reading about how some folks had made their own, so that made me wonder if anyone here knows how one would go about making their own -- any recipes out there? -- and also if anyone knows where one could buy things like 'sodium citrate' or these other ingredients?
Any ideas? Any cooks in the P-R Kitchen? :Retro smile:
Dan
p.s. Here's a link to a couple of recipes for homemade Gookinaid -- looks like the Gookinaid link is down...maybe they stopped selling it?:
http://www.dfwcfids.org/healing/gokhmbrw.htm
Has anyone made their own electrolyte concoction to help address low blood volume, dehydration, etc?
I've been searching the past couple of days for a good "safe" electrolyte replacement / rehydration product, a la Cheney's ancient Gookinaid recipe, to help with low blood volume, orthostatic intolerance, cramps, twitching spasms, etc., -- but so far can't seem to find one that doesn't have some sort of artificially sweetened/colored/flavored junk in it.
The closest I came to one was a formula developed by NASA for astronauts who experience low blood volume upon returning to earth (an estimated 80% of them).
"To help address this concern, astronauts traditionally tried to rehydrate before and after landing by taking salt tablets with water. (Sodium helps regulate extracellular fluid volume.) This method, though, proved inconvenient and unpleasant for the astronauts, as well as impractical in space where water supplies are limited. The high levels of sodium in the tablets could even lead to greater dehydration if not managed carefully.
After years of extensive Agency research and testing, Ames Research Center physiologist Dr. John Greenleaf developed and patented a better alternative: an electrolyte concentrate composed of a specific ratio of sodium chloride and sodium citrate. The isotonic formula, containing optimal proportions of water and salts for absorption into the body, provides for fast, easy, and effective rehydration in amounts practical for use in space. Astronauts currently use the patented formula on missions."
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2009/hm_9.html
Yes, we're not up in space, but the recipe has been tweaked for use by Earth dwellers...
The tweaked recipe sounds generally ideal -- with one major flaw -- the commercial version ("The Right Stuff") has Splenda (Sucralose) in it, which is a synthetic frankenfood made from sugar and CHLORINE. Some folks may tolerate this, but a quick google search will turn up horror stories that sound like symptoms of fibro and CFS/ME. I was given some Pedialyte a few years ago when I got some sort of stomach flu, and wolfed it down. When I woke up the next day I was in pain from head to toe, literally. It was then that I saw that Splenda was one of the ingredients. And they give this stuff to babies...oy.
It's worth noting that that the original NASA formula did not contain Splenda/Sucralose -- that was just added to the commercial product "The Right Stuff".
Anyway, the ingredients are:
Filtered Water
Sea Salt - Electrolytes (Sodium & Chloride) - NASA patented blend
Sodium Citrate - Electrolytes (Sodium & Citrate) - NASA patented blend
Citric Acid - For flavor, to help offset saltiness and also natural preservative
and then "the Right Stuff" added the Sucralose and flavors, preservatives.
That's one formulation...
Then there's Recup-eration, the formulation developed by Alfred Blasi, that has:
Sodium citrate
Potassium chloride
Sodium chloride
and smaller amouts of...
Magnesium carbonate
Calcium phosphate
...which one adds to water.
I used to take use this -- it was surprisingly helpful, and the little packets lasted forever -- but it can only be purchased from Spain (or was it Italy) -- so it was pretty costly, so I ran out a year or two back and forgot about it until now.
Mark London wasn't so sure about Recup's effects, but acknowledged that "some of Recuperat-ion’s beneficial effects, may be due to the alkalinizing property of sodium citrate, which will then increase calcium and magnesium retention."
http://stuff.mit.edu/people/london/RRR.html
I remember reading about how some folks had made their own, so that made me wonder if anyone here knows how one would go about making their own -- any recipes out there? -- and also if anyone knows where one could buy things like 'sodium citrate' or these other ingredients?
Any ideas? Any cooks in the P-R Kitchen? :Retro smile:
Dan
p.s. Here's a link to a couple of recipes for homemade Gookinaid -- looks like the Gookinaid link is down...maybe they stopped selling it?:
http://www.dfwcfids.org/healing/gokhmbrw.htm
