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Richard A. Cash, who saved millions from dehydration, has died

nytimes.com

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Re: Richard A. Cash, who saved millions from dehydration, has died

#11

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

This caught my attention. From the article:

     Other doctors and nurses found their experiment [drinking water w/ sugar+salt] bizarre and tried to stop them.
To me that seemed like professionals clinging to orthodoxy for orthodoxy's sake. They forget that endless reevaluation is needed for a practice to remain 'best'.

And maybe it was that. But I also found this talk from Dr Cash; he gives other examples of resistance (along with their causes).

    Whereas, in one country I went to, Jamaica, I was puzzled, even though I was working at that time for PAHO, that there was terrific opposition. It seemed that they wouldn’t cooperate with anything. Even they wouldn’t give my assistant a bed in the residence quarters. 

    So I found out gradually—I was investigating this—and I found out several things. One is, the head of the hospital was so skeptical about this working that he had made a hundred dollar bet with his residents that it would fail. So obviously there was an incentive for it to fail. (Laughs.) 

    Secondly, the head of hospital stores, I found out, was making a lot of money on kickbacks from the IV company. So he had no interest in terms of resource flow of substituting oral for IV.
ref: https://www.cfr.org/event/simple-solution-saved-fifty-four-m...

Re: Richard A. Cash, who saved millions from dehydration, has died

#13

Post by bigfatfrock »

willcipriano wrote: post #10
paulpauper wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they sell sugar free sports drinks

Gatorade has a entire line of drinks for different purposes. Zero is what OP is looking for: https://performancepartner.gatorade.com/content/products/hyd... The normal one is for high powered endurance activities and contains some carbs (sugar) to help fuel you through them. They have one with even more carbs, sodium and potassium for people running marathons. The last two on that chart aren't a good choice for someo…

Propel and Zero (the first options) both contain sucralose, aka Splenda - I'd prefer to just drink salt water personally, or take the hit on a tablespoon of sugar mixed in and walk it off.

Re: Richard A. Cash, who saved millions from dehydration, has died

#14

Post by willcipriano »

bigfatfrock wrote: post #13
willcipriano wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gatorade has a entire line of drinks for different purposes. Zero is what OP is looking for: https://performancepartner.gatorade.com/content/products/hyd... The normal one is for high powered endurance activities and contains some carbs (sugar) to help fuel you through them. They have one with even more carbs, sodium and potassium for people running marathons. The last two on that chart aren't a good choice for someo…

Propel and Zero (the first options) both contain sucralose, aka Splenda - I'd prefer to just drink salt water personally, or take the hit on a tablespoon of sugar mixed in and walk it off.

The majority of Americans are overweight, as far as the science shows artificial sweeteners are the best choice for them vs full calorie.

If you look up the evidence for the downsides of artificial sweeteners anything that finds one is generally an observational study. So for example, the claim that they cause obesity is backed by the observation that obese people consume it in greater amounts than people who are not obese. That's like standing in front of a hospital and noticing everyone with a broken leg is on crutches and coming to the conclusion that crutches are the problem. Double blinded, placebo controlled studies don't find this effect. The best evidence we have indicates they are safer than the obesity that full calorie sweeteners cause in most people.

Re: Richard A. Cash, who saved millions from dehydration, has died

#15

Post by wetpaws »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #11

This caught my attention. From the article: Other doctors and nurses found their experiment [drinking water w/ sugar+salt] bizarre and tried to stop them. To me that seemed like professionals clinging to orthodoxy for orthodoxy's sake. They forget that endless reevaluation is needed for a practice to remain 'best'. And maybe it was that. But I also found this talk from Dr Cash; he gives other examples of resistance (…

>people clinging to orthodoxy for orthodoxy's sake.

Always been like this. Even something as simple as making them wash hands was a pain.

Re: Richard A. Cash, who saved millions from dehydration, has died

#16

Post by ajb »

willcipriano wrote: post #10
paulpauper wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they sell sugar free sports drinks

Gatorade has a entire line of drinks for different purposes. Zero is what OP is looking for: https://performancepartner.gatorade.com/content/products/hyd... The normal one is for high powered endurance activities and contains some carbs (sugar) to help fuel you through them. They have one with even more carbs, sodium and potassium for people running marathons. The last two on that chart aren't a good choice for someo…

Yeah, although worth noting that glucose is useful to promote absorption of the electrolytes, you may not need it in a sports drink but it's an integral part of the diarrhea med.

Re: Richard A. Cash, who saved millions from dehydration, has died

#17

Post by textlapse »

encoderer wrote: post #12

Reminds me of Norman Borlaug. Talk about leaving a dent.

People are so against GMOs without realizing how many millions of lives GMO’ed wheat and rice saved in India and elsewhere.

Both (Norman Borlaug and Dr Cash) go to show that modern and traditional medicines can be carefully manipulated in amazing ways to save millions of lives.

Re: Richard A. Cash, who saved millions from dehydration, has died

#18

Post by throw0101a »

Regarding the dehydration work see:

> Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) is a type of fluid replacement used to prevent and treat dehydration, especially due to diarrhea.[1] It involves drinking water with modest amounts of sugar and salts, specifically sodium and potassium.[1] Oral rehydration therapy can also be given by a nasogastric tube.[1] Therapy can include the use of zinc supplements to reduce the duration of diarrhea in infants and children under the age of 5.[1] Use of oral rehydration therapy has been estimated to decrease the risk of death from diarrhea by up to 93%.[2]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_rehydration_therapy

Re: Richard A. Cash, who saved millions from dehydration, has died

#20

Post by Reason077 »

Scoundreller wrote: post #4

Also mitigated many millions of hangovers, including my own. Too bad the commercial nature of “sports drinks” have dialed up the sugar and broke away from the clinical goal of rehydration.

> "Too bad the commercial nature of “sports drinks” have dialed up the sugar and broke away from the clinical goal of rehydration."

The ones that come as tablets which dissolve in water give you the electrolytes without the sugar. Less packaging waste, too. SIS (Science In Sport) is good, and other brands are available.

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