Pickle Juice!

[barton bourassa]

Great article in the Globe this morning:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/hea ... e30394558/

[Robgrant]

Excellent! Pickle juice for all.

[John D]

I'll start work on the experimental design for the field study. If acetic acid is the key component, then naturally we'll need to include alternative "treatments". I'm thinking pickled eggs, salt and vinegar chips, sauerkraut, and possibly chicken vindaloo.

Not sure how we're going to work in a suitable placebo effect, but we'll leave that part for Alan to sort out. We'll also need a cadre of volunteers. Rolf, I assume you'll step up?

J.

[AJ Neale]

Sign me up! In fact I can start bringing 6am juice shots to the Pareto Logic parking lot pending John's field study design. From our personal collection, Vancouver Island cucumbers immersed in pure cramp-eliminating gold......we have quite a few jars from our last canning marathon. It's great stuff!

Andrew

[Rolf]

We'll also need a cadre of volunteers. Rolf, I assume you'll step up?

You know it.

I understand it's fermentation more generally wot does the business. I will continue to enjoy a diet heavy on cheese, cured sausages, beer, and kimchi—in accordance with personally devised (and thus unassailable) theories of nutrition and fitness.

[Alan]

Of course Rolf would be in a trial of this, if it involved trial subjects stuffing food substances into their mouths. Have you ever in the history of the world ever seen a guy eat so much but manage to stay so svelte? Do tell your secret, Rolf if you can manage to squeeze out a few sentences between mouthfuls of whatever you're currently cramming into your yawp.

As per a 'study' we may need to hone the hypothesis a bit more: is it acetic acid or fermented foods that are working their magic on cramping muscles? Luckily if Tripleshot can conduct a carefully-controlled trial, we won't need many patients. James Lind the famous Royal Navy surgeon who discovered the most effective cures for scurvy, did his landmark trial in twelve patients: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lind If you ever wonder why the Royal Navy ruled the waves and English is the most spoken language in the world, it's partly because of a successful vitamin trial that would never pass a peer review committee today. I riffed a bit on my naval hero a few years ago : http://commonground.ca/OLD/iss/0705190/ ... bust.shtml

Anyways, we would need to recruit maybe 12 'patients' who 'suffer' from routine cramps, randomize them to the various treatments, kimchi, pickle juice, bacon sandwiches, beer, shots in the dark, etc, and then measure the results at the end of a ride. I would volunteer to be a subject in said study (but I wouldn't meet the study protocols because I never get cramps) only because Andrew's pickles look awfully tasty!

[Greg F]

I'll volunteer to be in Gruppo Placebo.

(And by "placebo" I mean: "Double chocolate chunk cookies. With Nutella icing" )

Greg

[Claire]

Aha, finally I can put my quirky muscles to use for a noble cause! If you're looking for someone who suffers from cramps - look no farther! My muscles cramp if you just think the word "cramp" in my vicinity. And I'm not just talking about legs here. Neck, feet, thumbs, intercostals... If they're on the muscle chart, they've cramped on me. And don't try to pass off any placebo on me. My refined palate can distinguish between a genuine Lansdowne Slope dill and artificial pickle flavouring in a heartbeat.

Andrew - I think it's high time you stashed jars of pickles in the bushes for post-ride ... er... "hypothesis testing."

[roadflasj]

I'm squarely in the push till cramp category. Last year I cramped so hard to literally fall off the bike 175km into the BLR after a 31km/hr punishment to Port Renfrew and beyond. Also cramped hard on a truly forgettable Tour of Victoria in 2015. Rode smarter this year (ie slower) and survived 7-10hr rides just fine. I would love to have a better solution then to actually up my 2-3 rides per week training schedule. Or maybe just get rid of a few kids.

Anyone try out this stuff? They currently only ship to the continental US but really interested to give it a go. http://www.bikerumor.com/2016/06/02/rev ... ore-130503

[mfarnham]

My mom (a nurse) always said that a spoonful of vinegar would "cure" hiccups. I've found it to be quite effective. The theory is probably the same as for pickle juice and cramps.

Martin

[Marcus]

So I rode the Victoria Fondo today. The organization and support for the ride from the wheelers and others is top notch and I have a few ideas for the big loop ride on July 17. My ride was good. I managed to hook up with a couple of groups, which does not always happen for me, and finished a half hour faster than four years ago. So what goes this have to do with pickle juice? Well I started to cramp up the inside of my thigh half way up the switchbacks to Lake Cowichan and had to soft pedal up to the summit where fortunately the guys I had been riding with had stopped for water. When we stopped at Lake Cowichan there was an excellent selection of food and beverages: ham sandwiches, chicken soup, cinammon rolls, fruit juices, roll ups and a costco sized jar of pickles, some of which were arranged on a plate. I asked the volunteer if it were possible to have some juice from the jar and she said as a matter of fact I have a glass already poured. Apparently drinking pickle juice is not so novel. So I drank it and two small cartons of grape juice to rehydrate. And voila no more cramps. As a bonus grape and pickle juice do not really pair well so I was burping a lot which is not only excellent as a means to lower my heart rate but also regenerated the pickle juice taste. Yum yum.

[Barman]

See itsthenerve or teamhotshot for some 'science' behind it.