Publisher + Advertiser + Health Advice = Cover up?

This is pretty much the text of an email I sent to trailrunning@bauermedia.co.uk on 22nd July. I thought I'd leave it until they had time to respond but they chose not to.


A friend lent me a copy of Trail Running magazine (@TrailRunningMag). I liked the mag - otherwise I wouldn't be writing this - but there were a couple of articles that I felt were of low quality. The most serious of these was one on Dehydration, on page 26 of issue 8.

The alarm bells started to ring when I read the line, 'thirst is not a good sign of dehydration', which is point of view often trotted out by sports drinks manufacturers. The article also gives potentially dangerous advice on quantities which could lead to drinking too much, and it's ultimate conclusion ("even death a possibility") is completely unproven. It struck me as scare tactics.

In fact, there is not a single instance of a dehydration related fatality at a distance running race. On the other hand hyponatraemia, where runners drink too much liquid leading to a critical dilution of electrolyte has killed quite a few and hurt many more. Fully 13% of finishers at the 2002 Boston Marathon were clinically hyponatraemic...and I just had to go to Wikipedia for that information.

Even on a subject of this seriousness getting the facts wrong is perhaps understandable; perhaps the journalist's research has taken them down paths that differ to mine. Yet this article was written by Professor John Brewer (@sportprofbrewer), presented as an expert in the field.

Why would John Brewer want me to drink lots of liquid on a run? Is his advice independent, if misguided?

Perhaps I could have made a decision on that if I'd been presented with the fact that he worked for GlaxoSmithKline for 5 years and now 'evaluates the efficacy of sports nutrition products'.
Interestingly the link I used to find this out has been hidden behind a password. How interesting.

Clearly someone cared about my email...Possibly an editor with an advertiser to protect?

Happily we have the internet so he's easy to track down along with information that his research projects are funded by Maxinutrition - part of GlaxoSmithKline and that he used to be Director of Sports Science at the Lucozade Sports Science Academy.

Surely, we have a right to full disclosure when an article may affect our health?