5 Benefits Of Drinking Electrolytes

Author's Bio: Marcie Vaske, MS, LN, CNS

Hi, and welcome back to our channel.

Today we're going to talk all about electrolytes.

Electrolytes have been around for many years, but I want to explain more about the benefits of drinking electrolytes, including:

What they are,

How they can help in muscle functioning,

Optimizing your workouts as well as muscle cramping,

And ways that it can even help your heart rhythm.

[Video Transcript Below + Supplement Links Discussed In Video]

So today is all about electrolytes, but first before we dig into the topic, my name is Marcie Vaske and I'm a licensed nutritionist with Flusso Nutrients and at Flusso Nutrients.

We work really hard to educate you on all types of supplements so that you can make a more educated and wise choice for yourself.

Now remember, if you're taking any medications or other supplements that may be counter-indicated, it's best to speak with a supplement literate practitioner. And without further ado, let's dig back into our topic of the benefits of electrolytes.

So first,

What are electrolytes?

Electrolytes really are essential minerals that help regulate and balance out our body in terms of this delicate fluid balance.

And they contain sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium, and we need all of those in perfect balance so that our body runs more optimal.

Now, having a proper electrolyte balance is going to help us have better hydration levels, support our muscle function, as well as even our cognitive function.

And if we have imbalanced electrolytes, you're going to experience several different symptoms or a whole host of things such as muscle cramping, maybe brain fog and dehydration.

What are the benefits of drinking electrolytes in maintaining proper hydration levels?

We know that that's the primary function of an electrolyte is to keep our proper hydration levels optimized.

And what it does is that these minerals work in conjunction to help keep our fluid balance well and rid waste out of our body.

Electrolytes also help manage our body temperature.

Oftentimes, we are going to go through electrolytes very quickly when we're sweating.

So if you do a workout or even a really hard workout or you work outside in the hot weather, you're going to be pumping through those electrolytes, and what we need is replenish those.

And so oftentimes by ridding those electrolytes, just by sweating, you're going to go into dehydration. And of course, dehydration can feel like confusion, obviously muscle cramping, fatigue, you can start getting headaches.

So in these situations, this is where an electrolyte might be really handy.

Consuming an electrolyte drink can help restore those minerals of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium to give you back that fluid in that hydration feeling.

Now not only do we need it, very importantly for hydration, but we also need it for muscle function.

And what happens is that if we are low in our electrolytes, as I mentioned, you can start getting muscle cramping.

So if you are exercising or you might be watching athletes working out in the hot heat. I know my son is a football player and they've been practicing in all this heat, and if they're not properly hydrated, they're down for the count with cramps, those muscle cramps that hurt terribly.

And so the minerals in electrolytes help to support smooth muscle functioning and keeping those cramps at bay so that this way, whatever you're doing, working, playing sports, working out, you can definitely not have to worry about muscle cramping.

So we also need electrolytes to have proper nerve function and cognitive performance and specific electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, and calcium conduct an electrical conduction to support the way that our brain is working.

They actually allow for clear communication as well as cognitive performance.

So if you're low in electrolytes, sometimes this is why you're going to feel maybe more confused, like things you're just not tracking properly.

You'll also get headaches, and by being low in those electrolytes that can cause an issue.

So of course another time that you're going to want to increase that electrolyte function in your body by perhaps taking in electrolytes will do wonders in just your brain fog and your cognitive ability.

Another critical role that electrolytes play is in our heart rhythm and we use potassium, sodium and calcium again for those electrical impulses to help our heart beat properly.

If our electrolytes are imbalanced, we can go into tachycardia more easily as well as just having an arrhythmia and having an irregular heart rate.

And so if you become low in these electrolytes we're discussing today and you're feeling like you've got your heart's just racing or it's really not beating, it's beating slow, it's just all over the place basically.

Maybe you are low in electrolytes. Now of course, sometimes that's not the only reason.

So if this is a new symptom for you, obviously get that checked by a physician to be sure that you're not missing anything.

But sometimes if it's coming along with other things that we spoke about today, it could be low electrolytes.

Now, another place or area that electrolytes play a role is in maintaining our pH levels of our body and we use potassium, sodium and other minerals to help support that more slightly alkaline state of our body.

If our electrolytes are off and skewed for a long period of time, we can become more acidic, which really puts our body at a risk for other issues.

And if our body is too acidic, we could feel more fatigue.

So feeling just constantly tired, muscle weakness, feeling like even walking up a flight of stairs is like they're weak and you want to sit down.

Other things that can show up is even kidney stones can be caused from imbalances in your electrolytes and creating a more acidic body and also osteoporosis.

So balancing out those electrolytes is going to be very important in keeping us slightly alkaline so that our body is working very optimal.

Now,

How are we going to get these electrolytes and how does our body really balance this all out?

I think sometimes we don't even think about electrolytes because we do get them in our foods and most people are eating some of these foods on a daily basis.

Fruits and vegetables, so things that are high in electrolytes like bananas, avocados, green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, citrus, fruits, because all of those things, are high in potassium and in magnesium, and so that's going to help support that electrolyte.

Other ways that you can get electrolytes in foods are going to be nuts. Nuts like almonds and chia seeds and pecans and things like macadamia nuts, those all contain magnesium, and magnesium is one of our electrolytes.

So that naturally helps to support those levels.

In addition, you can always get electrolyte beverages, and we've seen many of those coming up.

Like I mentioned early on in the video, they are popular and more and more companies are coming out with really clean sources of electrolytes.

I particularly love the Hydrate by Nutridyn, and also I like Ultima, which is another nice balanced electrolyte.

Those are my two favorite, but there's a lot out there.

So search around, find one that speaks to you.

And if you are in need of electrolyte because you are getting dehydrated too quickly, you're working out in hot heat, you're exercising a lot and you're outputting a lot of sweat, there's no reason that you can't support yourself with a little bit of electrolyte on a daily basis if these things are happening because as I said and kind of indicated or shared with you today, that many symptoms can come out of low electrolytes.

So I hope that that helped you understand electrolytes a little bit better when you need 'em, what they do.

How can you choose an electrolyte supplement that's right for you?

I think the best thing is going to be going with one that has no artificial sugars, such as the Hydrate by Nutridyn or even the Ultima.

That's also a very good one. I know that, like I said, there's many out there, but really just look at no artificial sugars.

Basically, it should have potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sodium pretty mundane.

And adding a little bit to your water can make a big difference.

And if you don't want to go the electrolyte route, you can always throw in a couple little crushed up nuggets of pink Himalayan sea salt.

Now that will be much less amount, but it does have all of those minerals in there.

So I hope this helped explain electrolytes for you today.

And of course, if you have questions, please comment down below and we'll see you next week.

Thank you.

Check out the high-quality supplements we discussed in this video - links below for your convenience!

1) Dynamic Hydrate: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com/dynamic-hydrate

2) ALL PROFESSIONAL QUALITY SUPPLEMENTS: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com & https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/flussonutrients