Why do well conditioned adults drop dead during or shortly after
exercise?
Work out, run, sweat, then rehydrate after a long physical workout with plain bottled water and you may end up grabbing your chest as your heart flutters out of control. Bottled water can't be held responsible for something it doesn't supply, an essential mineral that could eliminate or minimize the risk for sudden death heart attack.
It's ironic that while lack of physical exercise may be a leading risk factor for coronary heart disease, on occasion well-trained athletes die suddenly during or immediately after exercise. Just this past December the Baltimore Sun published a report about "six vigorous, middle-aged professionals, four of them doctors, who exercised for all the right reasons, to relieve stress, reduce blood pressure, and condition their hearts and lungs," but died suddenly during or shortly after workouts.
Three law enforcement officers in a Tustin California Police Department running club have also died suddenly, without explanation. People still talk about Jim Fixx, the author of a best-selling book on the health benefits of running, who ironically died of a.heart attack at the age of 52 years while running.
Some of these deaths are blamed on low sodium levels, dehydration, others on blood vessel and coronary artery disease. But a major unreported cause is a likely magnesium deficiency. A recent report confirms that magnesium is often depleted by physical
exercise. [Critical Review food Science Nutrition 42: 533-63, 2002] Irregular heart beat is related to a shortage of magnesium. [Journal Internal Medicine 247: 78-86, 2000]
Sports drinks supply energy and replace salts, but not magnesium Sports drinks often supply sugar as energy for endurance athletes, and replacement sodium and potassium to prevent dehydration, but very little if any magnesium.
Bottled water is usually low in minerals if an American brand, and much higher in minerals if bottled in Europe. Right after a workout many athletes will reach for an available bottled water which is typically low in minerals (sometimes called dissolved solids), in particular low in magnesium.
The electrolyte minerals in the blood circulation are further diluted, and bang, the heart muscles start to spasm. What the heart needs is magnesium, and it needs it immediately after physical exercise. Magnesium in drinking water is not only more easily absorbed than from foods, but it immediately enters the blood circulation.