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Gatorade - G2 Alert


Kyler

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I was giving my 12 yr old POTS boy G2 because it only has 7 grams of sugar compared to 14 grams of sugar per serving in regular gatorade-they both have the same sodium content - 110 mg/serving.

I read an article about POTS that said that niacin is a potent vasodialator. My husband and I spent several hours in walmart comparing gatorade content and searching for low fat high sodium foods for him take in his 6,000 mg of sodium/day.

What we dicovered was that G2 has a large amount of niacin in it - 20% of your daily intake PER serving which means that you get over 50% per bottle. I was shocked and felt stupid for giving my child a drink that was counteracting his vasoconstricting midodrine - he was drinking 3-5 bottles a day.

We finally figured out that the Tiger Woods gatorade is the best - it's called Focus BUT of course it's a little bit more expensive (like 20 cents/quart of the bottled) but it has NO niacin, only 7 grams of sugar and more sodium than all the other gatorades--135mg/serving . It's "Focus" ingredient is called L-Theanine and everything on the net says no side effects have been reported since it came out in 1964 and it reduces anxiety and calms your mood?? So far so good.

Hopefully they will make it into a powder so it will be cheaper. We use regualr gatorade right now (powdered) and we are stocking up on Focus whenever it goes on sale to use when he starts back to school.

I just wanted to share what we learned about the niacin. This POTS stuff has proven time and again to be very complicated!!!

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Hi~

I'm not sure if you saw the postings on Nuun or not, but that's another good option if you can tolerate small amounts of sorbitol. I know G2 has a fairly high amount of this artificial sweetener. Just for another option, Nuun has 6 calories and no sugar per 16 oz serving, and the following ingredients:

Sodium 360 mg

Potassium 100 mg

Calcium 12.5 mg

Magnesium 25 mg

Vitamin C 37.5 mg

Vit B2 500 mcg

It has a lighter taste to it, kind of like flavored water. So far, I think it's pretty good. You can also recycle the tube the tablets come in. No mess to deal with...drop a tablet in 16 oz of water, and in 2 minutes it's ready to drink. Let us know how you like 'Focus', and thanks for the info on G2!

Jana

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I usually avoid all sports drinks and soft drinks as most of them contain aspartame or similar artificial sweetners. After actively avoiding aspartame for several months my concentration seemed to improve. I then stayed with my parents for a few weeks and drank a lot of squash (their tap water tastes terrible). I suddenly realised that my concentration and memory had got a lot worse again so stopped the squash for good.

If I want a flavoured drink I mix fruit juice with water or drink fruit or herbal teas.

For my sodium (when I had low blood pressure) I would add a sprinkle of salt to each 0.5 litre bottle of water that I drank (natural rock salt is better than commercial table salt as it contains other minerals too).

Flop

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Niacin, like many B vitamins, is associated with "energy metabolism" so it's a candidate for any thing marketed to "sports" and "energy". Some tout it as helpful for glucose stabilization & insulin resistance... perhaps it does that, not sure... there are advocates/studies. It is famous for a "niacin flush" which is a temporary histamine response in the skin... perhaps similar to some POTS flushing (though I think the two feel a bit different).

I tried to see if it did much for me energy wise, but it was minimal and hard to tell (things are so variable to begin with that finding a pattern is tough). I did like inducing and getting an intense flush over with on my own schedule! One builds up a tolerance to niacin, requiring higher and higher dose to get the flush again. There is a remote chance that I was helping keep away some POTS flushing by building up this niacine-histamine resistance. That is speculative, but I did have that subjective sense.

Obviously, that sort of "experimental" approach doesn't apply to helping a child. The "flush" thing is harmless but can be a bit alarming or irritating. I throw it out there as background info and because it can explain some feeling of "response" to niacin... and also hints at potential helpful effect from regular use. Higher doses of niacin are likely in a multi-vitamin, and certain to be in a "B vitamin" supplement, since it is one of the essentials.

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Just an update on the gatorade "focus". We did a test run and it seems to help Kyler not to urinate all his fluid out as well as not hyping him up on sugar as much. The 135mg of sodium /serving also makes it easier to get his 6,000mg of sodium in.

At this pont if they made it cheaper-like in a powder mix like regular gatorade-I would only give him the Focus kind. I am going to write to the company and see if it's in the plan.

So far I haven't seen any ill effects from it-it doesn't have aspartame in it- just High fructose corn syrup and sucrose- no sorbitol either. I'm not sure he has ever had sorbitol. I have always kept our family away from artificial sweetners like aspartame. I'm all about good old fashioned sugar but in small quantities.

I'm going to try the Nuun also though. The less sugar the better.

Erik- the first time I had the "flushing" from niacin was at my PCP's office and she told me that it was my blood vessels coming to the surface of my skin to release heat which made sense when I learned that it was a vasodilator. That was the last time that I ingested it on pupose-I imagined that that is what menopause feels like. No fun.

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It is a weird feeling! Uncomfortable, especially if you aren't expecting it. I got used to it and even missed it as my body got immune! But I'm an odd one. :) I would assume some could be extra sensitive to it as well, like most anything else. I even took it after sunburn, kind of silly since the skin is flushing on it's own at that point, but it seemed it might help speed the process with the extra blood flow as you mention!

The "Focus" is interesting... if it also increases my chance of marrying a Swedish model, then I will buy a few cases of it for sure. :)

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Here's a huge discussion of Niacin. A bit past half-way down is a list of some food sources (plus "enriched" things like flour can include it). Fortified cereal is a biggie! A little further down are some estimates of upper limits avoiding flushing (adolescents being 30mg/day). These aren't "overdose" amounts, I've had 1000mg or more in a day... these are initial flushing estimates (before the body gets used to it). Also, it comes in different chemical forms which can be different but "ingredient" lists may or may not distinguish.

Linus Pauling Institute on NIACIN

If you're going to avoid it altogether, be sure to get at least a little from somewhere (probably inevitable for any varied diet).

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