What was the sweat test like? Did they just end up being like, “Yep, you’re all hot and sweaty now. Looks like you weren’t lying about that.” and that was it?
My heat regulation is completely borked and I pour with sweat if I am moving around for long enough to warm up, it’s awful. I’m on 5 to 10 litres of water a day, depending on if I’m able to get up and do stuff that day or not, I think I’d die of dehydration if I was only on 3.
Guessing all the electrolytes you’re taking help with retaining the water though? I should look into that, there’s only so much salty popcorn I can eat.
Electrolyte drink mixes are my saving grace, and LMNT is my favorite brand by a long shot. I enjoy drinking LMNT while every other brand I’ve tried is a slog.
I try to have 2 a day in about 25oz of water each. Hot days with lots of activity, I may need 3.
I genuinely can’t imagine getting 5–10 liters of water a day, and I already drink so much more than most people I know!
The sweat test was awful. You basically wear your underwear, lie down in what amounts to a glass oven, then they spread sand all over your and you sit still for an hour and bake. Then they take a picture at the end.
And purple means sweat, yellow means no sweat. It shows what sweat glands activated by the autonomic nervous system. Then you have to shower it off and it takes forever.
They were very professional about it though, it was a nurse, a doc, and technician. I guess they were doing multiple tests at the same time, but I never saw other people doing it. Which was a relief I didn’t really want to see other purple people
Ugh, I would have been a miserable puddle of sensory overload. Kinda glad the nhs doesn’t have the budget for that kind of thing now.
As far as I know I’m the only one without high blood pressure in my family too, it’s weird how stress can break us so differently despite the shared genes.
I was in a miserable puddle of sensory overload. 15 years after the test I started learning that yeah I’m probably ASD, and there’s a strange correlation with ASD and POTS. Neuron magic.
It does help me keep volume, definitely. I found ones called “vitassium”. They have 500mg of sodium, 100mg of potassium per pill. That seems to work ok with 3L, so it should help reduce your intake.
It’s kind of weird to think about though. All my life I had to listen to my family having too high blood pressure so I got used to not eating salt.
I’m sure you know this so I’m commenting for others.
Sodium chloride alone can really upset your stomach, and potassium “buffers” the salt in a way that reduces nausea risk. There are straight up condensed salt pills that work, but are more likely to make you sick.
I also didn’t eat a lot of salt in the past and had to train myself into it. In fact, when I first started seeing my cardiologist, I made a humorous list of all the conventional wisdom I learned wasn’t true for me.
PSAs: Salt is bad for you! Eat less!
My cardiologist: Salt is good for you. Eat more. Like 7-10 GRAMS a day.
Popular media: Wearing a corset might make you faint!
My cardiologist: Abdominal compression is good. Wear a corset, it’ll make you faint less.
Fitness guides: When you hit an energy wall, push through to build endurance!
My cardiologist: When you hit a wall, STOP! You will pay for it if you keep going!
All health guides: The best drink for your health is water; always drink more!
My cardiologist: Just water is BAD. Drink lots, yes, but be careful to balance it out with electrolytes.
Magazine headlines: Walking is the best exercise for health.
My cardiologist: Walk if you can tolerate it, but that is not good exercise for you. Rowing, recumbent biking, and swimming are best for you.
Still makes me chuckle as I learn to listen to my body and not society.
Actually that’s a really good post. I didn’t know that salt without potassium would make you sick, as the products I used always had an amount of potassium in them.
And listening to our bodies shouldn’t be that hard, but here we are lol
What was the sweat test like? Did they just end up being like, “Yep, you’re all hot and sweaty now. Looks like you weren’t lying about that.” and that was it?
My heat regulation is completely borked and I pour with sweat if I am moving around for long enough to warm up, it’s awful. I’m on 5 to 10 litres of water a day, depending on if I’m able to get up and do stuff that day or not, I think I’d die of dehydration if I was only on 3.
Guessing all the electrolytes you’re taking help with retaining the water though? I should look into that, there’s only so much salty popcorn I can eat.
Electrolyte drink mixes are my saving grace, and LMNT is my favorite brand by a long shot. I enjoy drinking LMNT while every other brand I’ve tried is a slog.
I try to have 2 a day in about 25oz of water each. Hot days with lots of activity, I may need 3.
I genuinely can’t imagine getting 5–10 liters of water a day, and I already drink so much more than most people I know!
The sweat test was awful. You basically wear your underwear, lie down in what amounts to a glass oven, then they spread sand all over your and you sit still for an hour and bake. Then they take a picture at the end.
And purple means sweat, yellow means no sweat. It shows what sweat glands activated by the autonomic nervous system. Then you have to shower it off and it takes forever.
They were very professional about it though, it was a nurse, a doc, and technician. I guess they were doing multiple tests at the same time, but I never saw other people doing it. Which was a relief I didn’t really want to see other purple people
Ugh, I would have been a miserable puddle of sensory overload. Kinda glad the nhs doesn’t have the budget for that kind of thing now.
As far as I know I’m the only one without high blood pressure in my family too, it’s weird how stress can break us so differently despite the shared genes.
Thank you for the Vitassium link!
I was in a miserable puddle of sensory overload. 15 years after the test I started learning that yeah I’m probably ASD, and there’s a strange correlation with ASD and POTS. Neuron magic.
And no problem with that yeah.
It does help me keep volume, definitely. I found ones called “vitassium”. They have 500mg of sodium, 100mg of potassium per pill. That seems to work ok with 3L, so it should help reduce your intake.
It’s kind of weird to think about though. All my life I had to listen to my family having too high blood pressure so I got used to not eating salt.
Well that backfired.
I’m sure you know this so I’m commenting for others.
Sodium chloride alone can really upset your stomach, and potassium “buffers” the salt in a way that reduces nausea risk. There are straight up condensed salt pills that work, but are more likely to make you sick.
I also didn’t eat a lot of salt in the past and had to train myself into it. In fact, when I first started seeing my cardiologist, I made a humorous list of all the conventional wisdom I learned wasn’t true for me.
Still makes me chuckle as I learn to listen to my body and not society.
Actually that’s a really good post. I didn’t know that salt without potassium would make you sick, as the products I used always had an amount of potassium in them.
And listening to our bodies shouldn’t be that hard, but here we are lol