Tonic Water

On Mon, 7 Jun 2004 20:13:57 +0100, "Carrigman" <carrigman@DEATHTO

SPAMMERShotmail.com said:

A colleague of mine swears by Tonic Water while on the
hill. He claims a doctor friend of his told him that the
quinine in it helps guard against cramps. Has anybody else
heard of this?

Yes. My mum suffered terrible night cramps for years and was
advised by a herbalist or some such to try it; since she
started drinking a large glass of tonic water nightly she
has not had a single cramp.

So, add one count of anecdotal evidence.

Guy
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"Carrigman" <carrigman@DEATHTO SPAMMERShotmail.com> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

A colleague of mine swears by Tonic Water while on the
hill. He claims a doctor friend of his told him that the
quinine in it helps guard against cramps.

Has anybody else heard of this?

Yes, Quinine can be used to treat cramps. It is also used to
treat malaria and, I believe, was used to treat or prevent
gangrene. I'm not certain of the gangrene, but I think I
read it somewhere once. The other uses I am confident of.

At university I was recommended by my doctor to take OJ and
tonic water after training (karate) as I used to train hard
and suffer cramps and exhaustion afterwards. The idea was to
get the sugar from the OJ and the quinine from the tonic in
me quickly. That was twenty years ago, and sports nutrition
has advanced a lot since then, but it worked for me. There
are only two things university doctors are used to treating:
Sports Injuries and Social Diseases. On balance, I think I
was better off with the former, although the latter was
probably more fun to get.

The downside is that it can cause dizziness, which is
why pilots (amongst others) are not supposed to drink
tonic water.

Have fun, Paul

Paul Cummings said:

I used to train hard and suffer cramps and exhaustion
afterwards.

Salt. Salt has a remedial affect in resolving cramp
(following training).. and is prolly more use on the hill
than a bottle of tonic (especially considering the
deleterious affect of [excess] quinine).

I know that today's "society" is against increasing salt in
the diet but you can prove this one yourself; train hard,
find you're getting cramp, increase the salt in your diet,
cramp goes away, decrease salt, cramp returns. I know _so_
many people who have proved this for themselves that if I
had a penny ; -)

SteveO

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