Posted by msblucow on June 14, 2001 at 22:47:07:
In Reply to: Dehydration from coffee--why do the dive boats support it? posted by Eins on June 14, 2001 at 22:24:18:
Actually, coffee doesn't dehydrate as much as you might think. I ended up learning a great deal about hydration from some sports medicine folks while I was training for the AIDSRide. According to them, the caffiene in a single cup of coffee only has enough diuretic effect to cause your body to lose about half the liquid you just drank. In other words, if you drink a cup of coffee, you lose about 1/2 a cup of it right away. They also said drinking sodas is usually of greater concern, since most folks will drink several during the day, as opposed to just one or two cups of coffee. Their reccomendation was to drink at least one additional cup of water or sports drink replacement above and beyond normal fluid intake for every cup of coffee, tea or soda consumed.
Also, I know that at least theoretically hot tubs aren't a good idea (gas expands when heated - duhhh :-)), but I don't recall hearing any reports of extra DCI hits coming from the Peace (the only boat I can think of off the top of my head that has a hot tub). I'm wondering, has any study ever been done comparing boats with hot tubs and those without? Just curious.