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→Preventing and treating sodium deficiency
==Preventing and treating sodium deficiency==
''Main article: [[Practical Hydration]]''
Sodium deficiency is easy to treat and pretty much risk-free. Sodium deficiency can be either chronic (long-term) or acute (short-term). Increasing the salt in your diet can help prevent chronic sodium deficiency, and any excess will be naturally excreted. You may need to add far more salt to your diet than you expect. To prevent acute sodium deficiency you should add extra salt to the drink you take while running. I generally add a 1/4 teaspoon of salt to each quart of drink. To treat sodium deficiency triggered cramping, one recommendation is 3 g (1/2 teaspoon) of salt added to 0.5 L (\~16oz) of water or sports drink<ref name="twooptions"/>, which is rather salty and unpleasant shouldn't trigger nausea. [[Heat Acclimation Training]] may also help prevent cramping.