THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From the lab that created the successful sports drink Gatorade, comes a health drink Enterade, that, if all goes well, will soon be manufactured in the state.High-level discussions on this between the Industries Minister, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation and the Malayalee inventors of the drink from the University of Florida, were held a week ago.While Gatorade was developed by researchers of University of Florida and currently manufactured by PepsiCo, Enterade has been developed by Sadasivan Vidyasagar, who is an assistant professor in the Radiation Oncology Department at the same University.The drink will be manufactured by a company of the same name, Enterade, founded by Sadasivan Vidaysagar and his friends.The new drink, which is actually a concoction of amino acids will be a boon to cancer patients who have to undergo radiation as part of their treatment. “It will function as a radiation mitigation drink bringing down side effects such as diarrhoea,” said Vidyasagar who along with the investors and the University of Florida holds the patent for Enterade.“By drinking Enterade, cancer patients are able to withstand the toxicity tolerance of radiation much more and the chances of the patient getting the complete dose of treatment is increased,” said Vidyasagar, who took his doctorate in electrophysiology from the Yale University with the renowned Henry Binder.Not just cancer patients, long-distance marathon runners and soldiers on the warfront who might get exposed to bomb explosions would find the Enterade drink pretty useful. “After a bomb explosion, the first reaction is the toxicity to the gastrointestinal system in the first two weeks. Then comes bone marrow suppression. The drinks turn out to be pretty useful in the initial period of exposure,” said Vidyasagar.Even in case of nuclear reactor mishaps, supplying this drink in the evacuation period will provide protection. “Our mission is to use science from the lab to develop health drinks that will help a wide spectrum of individuals - from patients to athletes and more. We particularly focus on correcting nutritional imbalances in patients undergoing radiotherapy, chemotherapy and in those suffering from inflammatory bowel disease,” said T Hari, CEO of Enterade and also a former student of Trivandrum Medical College. The Enterade officials are buoyed up by the positive reactions from the Industries Department and the KSIDC, KSIDC managing director Alkesh Kumar Sharma, when contacted, was away on election duty.Interestingly, Gatorade was first developed in 1965 by researchers at the University of Florida to replenish the combination of water, carbohydrates and electrolytes that the school’s student-athletes lost (in sweat) during rigorous athletic competitions. Its name was derived from the collective nickname of the University’s athletic teams, ‘The Gators’.
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