Supplements

Okay. I’ll admit it. I let my dog do something that most people would find disgusting. But I consider it the ultimate recycling. I let her lick the sweat off of my face. I think of it as my own mobile towel system. The only thing I can figure is that she likes/needs the salt. I wondered if she needed real salt in her diet as a supplement. I have never, ever read anything about dogs needing more salt, only that, like the rest of us, you shouldn’t give them too much. But everybody metabolizes things differently, right?

Which, of course (as Paul would say) brings me to me. A month ago during my long Saturday run, I was feeling really lousy. Not my usual “bad running day” lousy, I was really, really dizzy and feeling really weak. I ran into an acquaintance… actually just another guy that I have run into often while running myself. He has a dog named Kevin. The dog, of course, was the only reason I ever talked to him in the first place. Anyway, I described my symptoms and asked if he had any ideas what it could be. “Low blood-sugar,” he said immediately. Yes, I thought as I went on my way and he on his. I have felt low blood sugar before. It was a bit like that, but not entirely. I continued on my way and just battled through it. I figure that I am on mostly major trails and someone will eventually find me if I pass out. Of course, Izzy will have eaten my face off by then…even if it was only ten minutes (joke, just a joke).

Last week I had the same feeling really bad AND I got up toward the higher elevations of my run and it was nothing but about an inch and ½ of slush. Every footfall went SPLAT and left my feet cold and wet. I had that horrible dizzy/weak feeling anyway and finally picked a point to run to that wasn’t as far as I really wanted to go and then went back. I ran into another acquaintance runner (if you run in the same place every day you eventually get up the nerve to start a conversation with the others that run in that same place every day). We discussed our run and I was very relieved to hear her say that she was almost crying because her feet were so cold and she turned around fairly quickly. She even had Gortex shoes at home –which I never splurged for but I am really thinking about it now.

So, during that conversation, I asked her what she thought the weakness and dizziness could be. “Dehydration,” she said immediately. But I hadn’t changed anything recently. I drank as much water. I drank as much wine. Maybe even a little less wine. So, as the vegetarian in the room, I said “Protein?” She sorta wrinkled up her face and shrugged…the gesture for: “no…not at all…well could be.” Nothing had changed. Until the next week I realized that the only thing I had been doing differently was a new daily vitamin supplement.

I ran out of the one that I usually get from Trader Joe’s. I didn’t want to go to TJ’s, so I bought what I found at another store. It was a supplement for women over 50. Hey! I thought. I am a woman over 50! So, I bought it. Of course, I am a very fast shopper so I just grabbed it. When I got it home and read the actual packaging, I realized that it had a lot of other stuff in it. For one thing, it had some sort of mushroom extract stuff that was supposed to be good for “defense.”

Yeah, I know…mushrooms. The problem is that in the wrong hands mushrooms can do a lot of damage. For instance, my ex-husband went to a fancy restaurant in Anchorage where he had a cream of morel soup. Fine, but they floated lovely, yet, undercooked morels on the soup and he got sick as a dog. NO! Do NOT eat undercooked morels. Yes, even these wonderful mushrooms can make you ill if you don’t cook them long enough. So, similarly, there are people who understand “THE MUSHROOM” and can coax out its best characters and there are those who throw it in a pot and call it dinner. I think the maker of this supplement may have just thrown it in the pot.

I stopped taking that and went back to TJ’s regular chewables. It actually took a while to get back to normal. Whatever it was that was making me feel dizzy and weak was obviously something that stayed in the system for quite a while. I never thought that a supplement like that would make it to the market. Of course, it is an unregulated business, so who knows. But, as I said earlier, everyone metabolizes things differently. Maybe Izzie DOES need more salt in her diet. At least I know I need less of that supplement.

It’s too bad, too, I had just found if for $4 cheaper at Winco.