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The Hyponatremia of Exercise, Part 8

In Part 8 of the series, Professor Tim Noakes outlines key moments in the development of hydration science between 1983 and the early 2000s. He discusses the first known example of exercise-associated hyponatremic encephalopathy and explains why misconceptions about how the human body regulates temperature and blood sodium concentrations during exercise led to the mismanagement of that case and many others. He notes that despite scientific discoveries regarding the causes and optimal treatment of EAHE, incidences of the condition were increasing in the U.S. military and among U.S. marathon runners. He proposes several explanations for this occurrence, first among them the promotion of the Zero-Percent Dehydration and Water as a Tactical Weapon Doctrines. What we have learned, he explains in conclusion, is that when scientific truth is “pitted against the power of modern marketing,” that truth “will not be heard.”

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