Hello UVRC and welcome to the second installment of UVRC Labs where we dive into the science, myths, and facts of running. There is a lot of information out there about best running practices, some of it is good, some of it seems to be just flat out wrong, and a decent amount of it is told with an ulterior motive. But here we strive to dig into the actual validity of this information and bring you at least a somewhat more informed opinion. Please note that whatever is provided here is the opinion of a non-medical professional and should not be treated as medical advice.

When it comes to the running world you wouldn’t have to search too hard to smack into a “*insert number* of weird habits of runners” listicle (gosh I hate that word). Without getting on a soap box about what constitutes “weird”, one can see the point that is trying to be made which is that we as a running community have habits based on experience that make sense to us, but might not to a person outside of that community. One of the perhaps more eyebrow-raising habits is the tendency to down that sweet nectar of the Gods, pickle juice, right after a tough run. When questioned about this, and you don’t have to explain yourself really, most people would say that they do this because it is better or as good as Gatorade without all that sugar and it has electrolytes to help prevent or ease cramping.

But of course, we over at UVRC Labs (not a real lab, but hey maybe one day) wondered if it actually was true that pickle juice was as good or better than Gatorade at least in regards to electrolyte recovery and cramping. Not to make this about me (RJ) but I was recently at a scientific conference where we talked about our tendency as scientists to bury the lead when it comes to revealing results for the sake of storytelling so I’m just going to tell you upfront we have another one of those running folk remedies that has a shrug as a result. There is not much to suggest that pickle juice (PJ) is particularly good at replacing electrolytes or preventing cramping. There is also some decent evidence saying that Gatorade and similar sugar-heavy sports drinks are also not great at replacing electrolytes, or rather the amount you’d actually need to drink is WAY more than you actually would comfortably consume. But we’re not here to bash Gatorade….today. Let’s talk about PJ!

Without going into the super nitty gritty, it is generally accepted that running, even while properly hydrated, causes you to lose both water and electrolytes as you sweat. This causes most runners to finish workouts slightly to severely hypohydrated aka dehydrated. You also run the risk of cramps which I found out we actually don’t have a concrete understanding of what causes exercise-associated muscle cramps or EAMC but that is another article. One of the believed reasons is an imbalance of electrolytes (specifically salt) and water in your body which, as we mentioned, gets wonky after a run. In comes PJ! Having plenty of salt and even some potassium and other nutrients to get you back on your feet. You don’t want to drink pure water after a run because that only solves half the problem and you run the risk of becoming hyperhydrated (too much water, not enough electrolytes). And eating straight-up salt would just desiccate you like a mummy. So PJ is a happy medium, with salt, water, and misc other electrolytes that in theory should only take a small volume to equal what other sports drinks provide.

Except maybe not really. I read a few papers (ref:1-4) and number 1and 4 are referred to in other studies, but 4 didn’t actually have the participants exercise, so #1 is what I will primarily be discussing here. Note that these papers are looking to specifically address whether the electrolytes have been sufficiently been replaced which is primarily done by measuring their concentrations in plasma. In this study they refreshingly took a mixture of males and females (7 and 6 respectively) however those numbers dropped to 7 and 2 in the end. So still not robust or diverse, but to be fair, doing human studies with a certain amount of invasiveness (you’ll see how invasive in a second) is very challenging to set up and find participants. The participants underwent vigorous exercise (77-87% maximal heart rate) for 2 hours with all sorts of fun (not actually fun) monitoring equipment attached to them, like a rectal thermometer (yesh), and were sufficiently dehydrated by the end. After the exercise they ingested a volume of pickle juice, and also mustard in a separate trial but we don’t have time for that, and they collected blood samples after 5,15,30, and 60 minutes.

Good news is that you don’t have to worry about the salt in pickle juice making things worse as they found that it did not drive your salt levels up super high. Bad news is that they didn’t find that PJ did anything to your salt levels (or any other electrolyte) either in regards to replacement. That being said many athletes have reported that they have experienced dehydration and cramping relief pretty quickly from PJ, so what’s up? Well, the reason for that might actually be just the impact PJ and other salty sour things have on our oropharyngeal (middle throat). It is theorized that PJ causes a reflex response that essentially halts, or delays, the cramping process, kind of like how drinking coffee triggers a reflex response that makes you want to go #2.

Don’t worry, Gatorade and other sports drinks aren’t shown to do much better. In fact, one article (2) did some maths and found out the theoretical amount of a sports drink you’d have to drink to replace what you’ve lost, spoilers: for sodium it can be in the gallons range.

That all being said, there is nothing saying you *should not* drink PJ after a run. And if historically you have felt fine doing so and have had effective recoveries, there isn’t anything saying you should not keep doing that. As I have said and will say again, these studies are very limited in scope and every human is different so these results are by no means conclusive for everyone. Just enough to cast doubt, as is the wont of science.

Also, I wanted to share what I thought was a pretty cool article and that was one that examined different intervention strategies for females during menstruation cycles to aid in athletic performance, recovery, and injury prevention (3). Something I would warrant is an unfortunately understudied aspect of female athlete health. They also found that PJ did not do much for restoring electrolyte levels BUT there is a lot of cool information in there that I think some of you might find useful!

Anyway, in conclusion, there is not much to suggest that pickle juice will efficiently restore lost electrolytes, at least in your plasma and at least not within 60 minutes after ingestion (as most studies use as a timeframe). It should be noted that it could be just as simple as drinking more PJ but eventually, you DO run the risk of getting too much salt. And when it comes to EAMC, your best solution really is to stretch. Anything you can consume will take at least 10-15 minutes to have a chance at being absorbed under normal conditions and in that time you could have been stretching anyway.

Let us know what you think though, has PJ been your savior after a race! Does anyone eat mustard after a run? I sincerely wish to know about that because I have yet to see a person at the post-race with a bottle of Dijon.

References

1. Miller, Kevin C. "Electrolyte and plasma responses after pickle juice, mustard, and deionized water ingestion in dehydrated humans." Journal of athletic training 49, no. 3 (2014): 360-367.
2. Miller, Kevin C., Brendon P. McDermott, Susan W. Yeargin, Aidan Fiol, and Martin P. Schwellnus. "An Evidence-Based Review of the Pathophysiology, Treatment, and Prevention of Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramps." Journal of Athletic Training 57, no. 1 (2022): 5-15.
3. Helm, Macy M., Graham R. McGinnis, and Arpita Basu. "Impact of nutrition-based interventions on athletic performance during menstrual cycle phases: a review." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 12 (2021): 6294.
4. Miller, Kevin C., Gary Mack, and Kenneth L. Knight. "Electrolyte and plasma changes after ingestion of pickle juice, water, and a common carbohydrate-electrolyte solution." Journal of athletic training 44, no. 5 (2009): 454-461.