Evaluation of rehydrating efficacy of Trushna-Nigrahana Mahakashaya in Exercise-induced Dehydration in healthy Individuals

Exhaustive physical work is common in athletes and certain occupations like firefighting which

imposes considerable physiological demands, which is exacerbated by impaired heat dissipation due

to environmental heat stress. Specifically, during moderate intensity exercise in the heat, sweatinduced

water loss can be profound. Dehydration is an imbalance between fluid ingestion and loss,

which may lead to dysfunction, illness, and likely increases susceptibility to heat related illness or

injury.

Fluid replacement before and during exercise is unlikely to be sufficient to counterbalance the

ongoing fluid loss. This is especially true during prolonged exposure to a hot environment and in

long duration games like Cricket, Football, Hockey etc. An athlete is then faced with the possibility

of being significantly dehydrated when having to compete again soon. Also, not having enough

hydration can have its effect on the athlete’s performance and not being able to perform as per one’s

capacity leads to added amount of stress in their life.

Hence, a decision must be made on the most effective post-exercise rehydration strategy to restore

body fluid balance.

If there is limited time (~2 hrs) before the next event, an athlete should replace fluid loss in order to

achieve rehydration. The restoration of body fluid losses is necessary for optimal cardiovascular

function and thermoregulation during subsequent exercise (Costill and sparks, 1973, Morimoto et al.

1983).

One of the factors in achieving optimal post exercise rehydration is that drink volume should be

greater than the volume of fluid loss. (Shirreffs et al., 1996). Drink palatability is important since an

individual will not drink a sufficient quantity of drink he/she does not like (Hubbard et al. 1990).

Rehydration after exercise requires not only replacement of volume loss but also replacement of

electrolytes and primarily sodium lost in the sweat.

Hence, the present study is taken up for evaluating the rehydrating efficacy of Trushna Nigrahana

Mahakashaya in Exercise-Induced Dehydration.