The battery is empty? Are you really tired? No more spauz and the grains are eaten? Or is this the big "hypo"? The dreaded hunger pangs? Or, even more dramatically, is this what's happening to a fellow mountaineer in distress? This is where a safety dextro can pull the iron out of the fire. The Gears of the Week¹ say goodbye to the summer break with a few interesting details about the energy booster for your pocket.
Dextrose, or more correctly D-glucose, usually simply called glucose, is a monosaccharide, a simple sugar. It is one of the most common and metabolically most important. In addition to fructose, it is the second component of the disaccharide (disaccharide) sucrose - also known as sucrose or simply household sugar. So it's pretty common stuff. So why not just take a few cubes of sugar with you on the mountain? Mainly because it's usually impractical. Sugar crumbles, sticks and absorbs water. In addition, the safety dextro has some physiological advantages. The finely crystalline powder, pressed into tablets, is very quickly soluble in saliva, especially with additional chewing activity. Furthermore, as a monosaccharide, glucose does not have to be broken down enzymatically and can be absorbed directly through the mucous membranes. Even if the mucous membrane of the small intestine certainly takes over the lion's share, the sugar can already enter the bloodstream in the mouth, throat and stomach. This counteracts hypoglycemia, a drop in blood sugar levels, also known in sports circles as hunger pangs. It doesn't really matter in what form you consume the glucose. The pressed tablets of the safety Dextro are handy and easy to suck. Especially when placed under the tongue or sucked for a long time without swallowing, the glucose reaches the blood very quickly via the oral mucosa. Of course, the energy gels commonly used in sporting circles also have a similar effect and application. If you've overdone it and significantly lowered your blood sugar level because you have managed to empty your liver glycogen stores properly, it is difficult for the body to meet its energy requirements from fats without sugar and a few bars of safety Dextro at short intervals can work wonders here. If you are really dealing with medical emergencies involving severe hypoglycemia, you should definitely think in terms of packs rather than more tablets.
If the aim is to replenish energy reserves quickly but also sustainably, the combination therapy of safety dextro with tried and tested products such as the safety bar or safety chocolate is ideal. The Safety Half, on the other hand, should only be included in the treatment with extreme caution and ideally after the crisis situation has been completely mastered. With this excursion into nutritional physiology, the Gears of the Week say goodbye to the summer break. We hope this category has been as entertaining for you to read as it has been fun and challenging for us to find suitable and presentable material. And so the only question that remains is: which equipment-intensive sport can the ski-savvy gearhead save himself over the summer until this category on PowderGuide.com is filled with new life again in the fall?
¹ The title of this article is not a typo...
