Tingling sensation stomach - electrolytes?

[SteamMyTie]

Hi all,

For background, I am a 35 year old male, recently diagnosed with hypertension (in the process of sorting the right level of medication) and trying my best to get some more exercise back into my routine. Running is my go-to form of exercise and I ran a marathon in October last year (but almost nothing since).

However, over the last few weeks, I have 2-3 occasions where towards the end of my run I have had a really strong tingling sensation across my stomach at the end of the run. I’ve noticed it has typically happened when it has been warmer and it passes after 10-15 mins of sitting down at home and having a drink. It has not been an issue in cooler days but this may just be coincidental.

Has anyone else experienced this? I wondered if it could be down to an electrolyte imbalance as I have been trying to cut salt and, despite trying, probably do not get enough fruits/veggies! I mentioned to my GP on my last visit and she put it down to potential side effects from my medication but also said to have tingling across the stomach isn’t a usual symptom. I’m going to try again with a different GP next week, but wondered if you people may have any thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

[Sqkr Half Marathon]

I've not myself, nor heard of anything similar, though I have had extreme reactions to usually pretty inert medication post-run (ibuprofen specifically!), so there's a chance it may not be a recognised symptom simply because it's not been tested in that specific context. You didn't say how far you are running, but do you take any liquid or fuel with you at all? I realise that you're trying to cut salt so it's tricky to manage the usual prepackaged fuel types, but if you're out for longer than an hour and need a top up there are always natural fuels like nuts and dried fruit to try, along with sips of water. And presumably you still need a small amount of electrolytes to replace those lost through sweat. Sounds like it might be worth a bit of trial and error, and maybe thinking a little ahead of exercising to try to get a decent diet/hydration foundation too, see if it makes a difference at all. Good luck with the GP, hopefully they'll be able to shed some more light on it!

[SteamMyTie in reply to Sqkr]

Sqkr, thank you for your response. As I’m currently getting back into regular running, these have happened on runs between 2-4 miles, so not in the sort of distances to worry about fuelling on the run. However, I have equally been out up to 10k so far and not had any issues. I have been trying to track food and water intake recently, so will see if there is any correlation there as the only common theme I have noticed so far has been the temperature/humidity on those days (but could be possibly be a combination of that and dehydration/under-fuelling). It definitely seems to be one where I need to just trial it and track details to see if there is anything, and like you say, worth thinking ahead to ensuring properly hydrated/fuelled on days that I am planning to run. I think I’m just being overly-cautious partly because it is not something I’ve experienced before (and I’ve done a lot of running in the past) and with the recent hypertension diagnosis. I’ll mention to GP next week and see if they have any further advice. Cheers for your help.