Re: Carbo loading products

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/4/99 5:05:00 PM Pacific Standard Time,
suendavid@worldnet.att.net writes:

<< I'll go pick her brain---I'm trying to develop a protocol to track
 glucose, fluid and electrolyte balance and plasma volume on some horses
 on the treadmill to nail down some data, now just to find the funding
 (as usual.)
 
 Susan G >>


Here's another thing to look at--the water concerns. When carbohydrate is
absorbed into muscle cells as glycogen, it requires twice its weight (nearer
to 3 times its weight) in water to be stored at the same time. It takes about
1 1/2 hours for an exercising horse to reach peak blood glucose after a dose
of carbohydrate and, at that point, the insulin presence begins to overcome
the increase of glood glucose and shunts the glucose away into the muscles
faster than it's being absorbed into the blood stream. All the while, glycogen
is being burned and is releasing water back into the system--contrast this
situation with that where great gobs of hay (primary source of Free Fatty
Acids) suck the water out of the metabolism just to digest the stuff. 

However, as carbohydrate is burned, the water is released back into the
bloodstream. Just as with the insulin concern, it's not that the water
disappears--it's being used--just as blood glucose is being used in the form
of glycogen through the action of insulin. This is normal, not abnormal,
physiology. And what you see, as a result, is improved performance, reduced
fatigue, and faster recovery.

ti