Salt capsules made triathletes faster, in a trial of 26 people
Twenty-six triathletes took 2.6 g of sodium in capsules or a dummy through a half-ironman. The salt group finished sooner. Strength, jump height and sweating were unchanged.
What the study found
The one trial where salt made athletes faster analysed 26 people
The only randomised result on the pro-salt side is a borderline one. Twenty-six triathletes took 2.6 grams of sodium in capsules or a dummy through a real half-ironman, and the salt group finished sooner and with higher blood sodium. Strength, jump height and sweating were unchanged.
The caveat · Minutes gained were never reported
The finish-time result is a single p-value of 0.04 among eight reported outcomes, the shape of finding that most often fails to repeat. The abstract never says how many minutes faster, so the size of the advantage is not on the record anywhere. The trial's registry entry declared 40 participants against the 26 analysed, unexplained. Four to six hours of racing by trained triathletes says nothing about an hour in a gym.
What we don't know
One randomised trial found salt capsules got triathletes to the finish sooner, on a single borderline result in 26 people. Whether that holds up is open, because nobody has repeated it.