I've read pickle juice it is great for athletes who want to rehydrate, better than Gatorade because all of the salt/electrolytes and I guess veggie juice. I'm not trying to advertise or anything, but if you have a Cracker Barrel nearby pick up a bottle of Wickles sometime. This post was inspired by those darn things. I finished my jar off in 2 days, eating them right out of the jar, then figured why not and drank the juice lol. I may try to make some pickles this summer. I made some pear and plum pickles (Alton Brown's recipe) once and they were so good. The recipe called for white wine vinegar and lots of sugar.

Here's a few ideas I've seen on a lot of sites. Cleaning copper and bbq grills, heartburn cure, hangover remedy, weed killer sprayed on the plants, fertilizer for acid loving plants poured around them, repickling anything really from carrots and onions to watermelon rinds, little bit will make cramps go away quick. It's a great meat tenderizer and is supposedly a good post workout drink lol

There is a skating rink here that sells big dill pickles. Then they freeze the juice in little paper cups with a stick in them and sell "picklecicles." How's that for creative thinking? :)

So you made me wonder why, and I went poking around. I don't know the veracity of this, but the Cooper Institute's article on the subject sounded more like they were going from scientific research than off the cuff: "Now, you might be saying, wait a minute, pickle juice works for me. Yes, there is research showing pickle juice shortens muscle cramp duration, but not because of its high electrolyte concentration. In fact, it takes about 30 minutes for even small volumes (2/3 cup) of pickle juice to leave the stomach (Miller et al., 2010a). Hence, blood electrolyte levels would not increase quickly enough to explain cramp relief. However, the acetic acid in pickle juice is ‘noxious tasting’ and proposed to chemically stimulate a reflex in the back of the throat. This reflex has been shown to decrease activity in the alpha motor neurons which causes muscle relaxation. You don’t even have to swallow the pickle juice to trigger the reflex, which can relieve cramps in less than 3-4 minutes (Miller, 2010b). It is possible that other noxious tasting substances may also provide relief from exercise-associated muscle cramps.