It is theorized that water and electrolyte ingestion helps prevent cramps but, truly, no one knows why you and I suffer from exercise-associated muscle cramps. What we know, or think we know, is that pickle juice solves cramps.
What we don’t have is the product! I want to talk to makers of nutritional products right now, describing that product I want that you don’t make. First let me explain the problem I want you to solve for me.
It’s not electrolytes or anything in the pickle juice delivered to the muscle site. The muscle in spasm often relaxes, in whole or part, after pickle juice is ingested (pickle juice seems not to be preventive, rather it is restorative). Relief is almost immediate – so immediate that it’s impossible for any substance in the pickle juice to make its way to the offended muscle.
Rather, it’s theorized that the taste of pickle juice triggers a reflex in the oropharyngeal region (the back of the throat) that inhibits the discharge of alpha motor neurons. Cramps that occur during exercise might be due to an increase in alpha motor neurons discharged to the muscle fibers, hence this theory explaining how pickle juice might work – pickle juice might simply trick our nervous systems into relaxing these cramps.
Pardon the segue, but this explanation intrigues me because of my own history with (occasional) atrial fibrillation. I have altered my behavior to decrease the incidence of a-fib, and this includes taking care about drinking extremely cold beverages, or smoothies, immediately after exercise. This is one (anecdotal, at least) a-fib trigger and the mechanism is the proximity of extreme cold to the vagus nerve. Also, alcohol is theorized to impact vagal tone, such impact a potential a-fib trigger.
The vagus nerve travels from the brain to the heart. It’s got branches, one of which is the pharyngeal nerve and this passes close to the surface of the throat. So, again, just as a layman, I’m intrigued that what contacts the throat – hyper-cold fluid or pickle juice – might trigger a neurological response that either hurts me (taking my heart out of sinus rhythm), or helps me (by telling my brain and spinal cord to stop producing alpha motor neurons). The same vagus nerve that might be offended, triggering a-fib, might also be stimulated to bring the heart back into sinus rhythm according to at least one study.
The vasovagal response is fascinating to me and what I list above only scratches the surface of all vasovagal triggers and responses.
The problem with pickle juice, or mustard – which may function just like pickle juice – is the delivery mechanism. Are you going to carry pickle juice with you, in case you cramp, during every relatively long race or training session? Honestly, if you’re asking me, yes. You’ll need at least 2 ounces. Can you carry this in a gel flask? Yes. That’s an option. If mustard works, what about those little packets of mustard you get at fast food restaurant? Sure, why not?
I just don’t see why it can’t be delivered as either a gel or a chew. This makes perfect sense to me.
How many electrolyte replacement products are sold in the marketplace? As drinks, gels, chews, tabs, patches? Meanwhile, what do we have for instant cramp relief? There are two homeopathic products but neither is, to my knowledge, of the pickle juice variety. There is a seller of pickle juice, for sports purposes. But then we’re back to carrying it around in a gel flask.
Why don’t we have this product, especially since we’ve known for at least 5 years that pickle juice is the magic spasm cure? The problem, I think, is the efficacy hurdle. I can make a drink today, sell it today, and I don’t need a clinical trial to tell me whether it tastes good or not. I can simply alter the formula to achieve a taste, make sure I’ve got the right sport-specific ingredients to satisfy my own nutritional theory and, whammo, my drink is off to market.
In the case of a pickle chew I suppose, if I’m a manufacturer, that I’d better test it after I make it, to see if it works. This is the risk. I might sink a lot of money into R&D only to find out my entrepreneurial experiment is a total loss.
Still, this is the product we need, that I need, that would, I think, sell like mad. Pickle juice, or whatever magically tickles my pharyngeal nerve, packaged in a convenient delivery system, best yet if it’s in the semi-dry formulation of a chew. There is one product I found, pictured here, Haribo Saure Gurken. But when I read the reviews it seems just to taste “too good.” What I suspect I need is something that really violates my taste buds. Certainly Haribo did not make this product for my stated purpose.
So, this is what I want, nutritional companies! Failing this, at a minimum, can someone just make us half-ounce packets of pickle juice, much like the quarter-ounce condiment packets we’re used to, to shove in our jersey pockets?
