What are electrolytes?
What are electrolytes?
I know gator-aid and its like advertise that they have lots of them. And I know sometimes I feel bad if I sweat a lot and just drink water. But are they just advertising... salt? Are there different kinds of electrolytes, and if so are they interchangable?
Effectively, yes. "Electrolytes" is a collective term for the ions that help move stuff into and out of your cells. These are primarily sodium and potassium, although calcium also plays a role. Sodium is the most important of these for sports drinks, because it is the one you most lose through sweat.
Unfortunately, most sports drinks don't really contain enough to balance out heavy sweating, because sodium salt (aka normal salt) tastes, unsurprisingly, salty. If a drink had the right balance of sodium, it would be noticeably salty. Gatorade has one line of drinks that do that, and Pedialyte is specially made for the correct balance. Sports drinks really jack up the sugar to help hide the salt taste.
Most sports drinks, rather than having the sodium you need to replace sweat, instead jack up the potassium (think Prime and it's advertised 843mg of electrolytes, 700mg of which is potassium). This doesn't really replace the electrolytes you need, but it also doesn't make the drink nearly as salty.
When you see "electrolytes", you should flip around to the nutrition label, which must list the actual amounts of sodium and potassium. This will tell you if it will actually help you recover from activity, or if it's just more sugar water and advertising.
Edited to add:
why is sodium so important? Because your cells use a mechanism called "osmosis" to move water back and forth. Water molecules naturally move from areas of high concentration to areas of lower concentration. In the cell, this means that water will go in to the cell if the inside of the cell has more sodium than the outside, and leave the cell when the outside has more than the inside.
When you sweat, two things happen: you lose water and you lose sodium you lose more water than sodium, so your blood becomes saltier. Water moves from inside your cells to your blood; this is what it means to be "dehydrated". To counter it, you need to dilute your blood and increase the amount of sodium in your cells. Hence, drinking water with sodium can help replenish both and speed recovery from dehydration.
Sodium is also used for all the electrical activity of our body (such as thinking and moving and living...), and is fundamental in adsorption of nutritions in digestion. Sodium, potassium and calcium are so important that it is difficult to even list all processes they are involved.
Edit. To add context our cells spend between 30 and 70 % of their energy to move around sodium and potassium ions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium–potassium_pump A good chunk of what we eat is to move them around
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I actually take electrolyte tablets with me when I hike. Hyponatremia (having dangerously low salt levels) can really sneak up on you when you are hiking in the heat for four or five days straight. You keep hydrated, but there just isn't enough salt in your food to replace what you lose. Dropping a straight tablet of salt can really help balance that
Fantastic ELI5, excellent response. Thank you!
Welcome!
This is an awesome ELI5, thanks for helping me to better understand this!
Welcome!
Funnily, I actually just recently watched an episode of Kurzgesagt that explains how osmosis and diffusion work in cells. Pretty cool stuff!
Link to the episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1KkQrFEl2I
So would you say 500-510mg Na to 370-380mg K is a good ratio for a drink additive? Trying to figure out where liquid IV (or is it Liqvid IV? Lol) stacks up.
Eh, anything that close to what your blood is at normal levels works out pretty well. Liquid IV and LMNT and so forth do pretty well... But depending on your activity, acclimation, and the temp, you might need several packets to make up. I run, so I am very acclimated, and that makes your sweat more. So in summer when I do multi day hikes, I take electrolyte tablets with me. It can really sneak up, so just swallowing a salt tablet makes it a lot easier to balance.
Here's a thorough (long) video by Gear Skeptic where he breaks down a lot of this within the frame of through hiking (usually 100+ miles) https://youtu.be/pcowqiG-E2A
I'm a bit curious in this too. I don't have an answer for you but totally anecdotal, I do notice I feel noticeably better even just halfway through a liquid IV which I've never noticed with any other sports drinks.
Back in high school I had some friends tour an NFL stadium. They got to see the field and locker rooms and all. I didn't get to go with them, so while they were in the locker rooms they stole a bunch of these powdered electrolyte drinks they had out for the players and brought some back for me. I remeber trying them and they tasted like straight sweat. It makes sense, but they were gross. Same flavor as licking someone's forehead.
Apply directly from forehead.
That's how you know it's working
Same flavor as licking someone's forehead.
Is it easy to make such a drink yourself? And at least a bit drinkable?
I buy this and add it to my water. Use a little less than a 'serving' first time at it can activate your gut - maybe from the magnesium? Buying it by the bag makes it much much cheaper than liquid iv.
Also this explains why after I have a particularly hard day at work, the thing that makes me feel the most regulated is a piece of steak that's very heavily salted.
Fat and protein, cartilage, sodium
Great eli5! Thank you!
That’s excellent. I’ve been coincidentally researching that myself now that I’ve picked up running. Out of curiosity, what is the one line of Gatorade that actually has enough salt that you mentioned?
I got some liquid iv and like you said, it’s palpably saltier than other things I’ve tried recently.
So drinking pedialyte is better than Gatorade?
Pedialyte or Gatorlyte are both balanced sports drinks and I'd say they're "better" than standard Gatorade if the goal is hydration exclusively, but they taste like salt water with flavoring added
Myself and the 3 others living in my house just all got e. Coli infections and the Gatorlytes were recommended by the Dr.s over regular ones or water due to the sheer amount of liquid loss experienced
Much more effective, yes. Although endurance athletes do benefit from all that sugar, too. But if you are playing sports - Pedialyte is much better
So in times of heavy exercise, is it better then to effectively drink saline? Assuming one doesn't mind the salty taste.
You could buy ORS (oral rehydration salt) from a pharmacy and mix it in water. Make sure the packet follows the WHO formula, and that you add the correct amount of water. If these are not available, the WHO recommends 3 g salt and 18 g sugar per litre (roughly 1 teaspoon and 6 teaspoons per litre) of water. But this will not have potassium and other minerals.
Well, during heavy excercise, a lot more than salt is lost. Another thing lost is blood glucose. It can help you recover to replece the glucose as well, so the sugar in sports drinks can be useful as well.
Salts. Sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Edit: Not interchangeable. All three are essential.
Gatorade is a bad source of electrolytes. It's loaded with sodium but that's about it. You're better off drinking coconut water and taking a magnesium citrate suppliment for hydration. Stay away from Gatorade. It's sugar water.
EDIT: Yes there are others too. Chloride, Calcium, Phosphates, and Bicarbonate. I only mentioned the major ones. Apologies for that.
Years ago I read that magnesium oxide has a very low absorption rate in the body, so it mostly passes in urine. The source said magnesium malate or citrate have much higher absorption.
Magnesium also competes with calcium for absorption. So it's best to space them out.
You're right. I meant to say Magnesium Citrate and only just now realized my mistake, two whole months later.
When you sweat, you lose more than just water. You also lose salt and some other minerals. Basically that's what electrolytes are and what's replaced with sports drinks.
What's not been mentioned yet is a real electrolyte drink is noticeably salty and does not taste very good. Gatorade and other sports drinks you find in the convenience store jack up the sugar to make it more palatable and saleable to the masses.
What do they put in the zero sugar Gatorades to make them tasty(ish)? Other non-sugar garbage?
Electrolytes are chemicals that can ionize to carry current. Table salt is one electrolyte, but potassium and magnesium salts are also required by the human body. Nerves work by sending electrical signals, so they need these electrolytes in order for them to carry those signals throughout the body. The problem is, the amount of electrolytes available to nerves depends on the amount present in the bloodstream, and when sweat glands pull water out of the bloodstream, they also take some electrolytes with it. That's why you need to replenish them after sweating. If you don't, your nerves won't work as well and your muscles will have a hard time coordinating. The specific ions you need to organize muscle contraction are sodium, potassium, and magnesium, so if you're low in any of those, then you risk weakness and cramps. So it's not quite as simple as just drinking table salt.
Like I'm five, man.
It's what they use to make Brawndo!
It's got what plants crave.
I love the hand gestures and facial expressions that the female actor uses. "Waater. Like out the toilet?" 🤢
When dissolved in water many atoms and molecules have some charge, that allows them to create relatively weak bonds with waters (therefore stay in solution).
The charge means that they have either more electrons than protons (negatively charged) or less (positively charged). These are called electrolytes because they can be "moved" in water and separated by applying an electrical field (electrolysis, this requires a different eli5, take it as it is).
Outside water these substances aggregate to form "salts".
Now, some of these charged elements are crucial for functioning of basic biological processes, such as thinking, muscle contraction (including heart), even sensing.
Unfortunately they are lost when sweating (they are dissolved in sweat). In a healthy diet, where you eat enough fruit and vegetables, this is not an issue. If you are doing intense exercise however, an additional dose of these substances might help. TBF I am not sure if it has ever been proved that it is necessary... But it might help.
As said, if your diet is good, you don't need them. If your diet is s*it you'll probably have other issues. If you have real issues your doctor will tell you how to address them.
Tl;dr: those drinks are marketing stuff. They might be beneficial only in case of intense physical exercise, not needed for daily life if you follow a healthy diet
I'm no doctor, but as far as I understand it electrolytes are sodium and potassium, and they help your body get hydrated faster by helping you absorb water (more? Faster? Idk, one of the two.)
(Btw, you're supposed to drink gatorade and water for this purpose, of course gatorade ads don't tell you that part though. Nor will they tell you about Pedialyte which is better than gatorade for hydration, or Liquid IV which I'm trying out now so I'm reserving judgement until my testing is complete).
I think it's water retention they help with. You should consider consuming electrolytes is you plan on sweating a lot (e.g high intensity sports) or if you consume large amounts of Caffeine.
My 2cents: Pedialyte (premade) still has that sweet taste whereas Liquid IV does not. The powdered Pedialyte contained (I haven't bought it in a few years so I'm unsure if the formula has changed) artificial sweeteners that upset our guts - which was no good when I was giving it to kids with diarrhea because it just exasperated the issue.
It may be placebo effect but I feel like it does a really good job.
*I am also biased because they make one with caffeine and it's helping me cut back on soda.
Imo some of the liquid IVs taste sweet enough, and some like golden cherry are even a touch sour, I love the taste of the ones I've had so far (which is only the aforementioned and the passion fruit one.) They do have Stevia leaf extract though. Honestly the bottled pedialyte is almost too sweet for me, and the powdered stuff is ok but for taste alone I definitely prefer the liquid 4. For hydration I'm still curious but I don't have any pedialyte powder to compare ratios, though I do have an old bottle of the pre-bottled one, and that seems to have similar proportions of Na and K.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say a product sold as a powder, and called Liquid IV, when IVs are traditionally liquid, is not to be taken seriously.
Would a rose by any other name not smell as sweet?
They're playing off the IV liquids you'd get in the hospital, like "oh look we hydrate you so well you'd think it's that shit."
You hate "Can't Believe It's Not Butter" simply for having the gaul to use a catchy name instead of "Hey Look It's Margerine?"
Lol I kid, but by all means, don't drink pedialyte either because that is only for children if we're going by the root words of their brand name. I mean really what sort of basis is this for an opinion?
I once was told my mother's electrolytes were high AND she needed vitamin D because she didn't get much sun. Somehow my young brain merged the two concepts such that if someone said there electic-lights were low, I would offer them my lamp to sun with.
if someone said there electic-lights were low, I would offer them my lamp to sun with.
Not sure if typo or a great pun, but a lamp is a good idea for someone lacking electric lights.
Sodium, potassium and magnesium. Largely. Varying concentration levels inside and outside our cells create positive and negative gradients which stimulate cellular reactions. Basically they have to do with our body's electrical system and are crucial for creating action potentials which start and end nerve impulses, make our muscles relax contract, operate our hearts, allow us to see and a ton of other important shit. It's the chemical and atomic level of our bodily functioning, very interesting stuff, yo.
Electrolytes are materials that cause water to be able to conduct electricity.
Basically this means ions, because the ions create spots in the water where there is either an additional or a missing electron (“additional” or “missing” in relation to balance of electrons to protons — a molecule or particle with unbalanced electrons and protons is called an “ion”).
Salt is one. It’s an ionic bond. You’ve got a positive sodium ion and a negative chlorine ion, bonded together like magnets by the attraction of the sodium’s positive ion to the chlorine’s negative ion.
Water molecules are polar, because the two Hs are both on the same side of the O. This gives the water molecule a positively and a negative charged side. This is called a “polar” molecule. Because water is polar, it can weakly bond with ions. This allows the ionic substance like sodium chloride to break apart, with the Na- and Ca+ ions now sticking to water molecules instead of each other.
That in turn allows there to be “holes” in the water’s electron density, the same way a metal allows there to be holes. Those holes allow electricity to flow through the metal or electrolyte-infused water.
That’s all just background on what an “electrolyte” is.
The human body uses lots of different electrolytes — is basically ions — in its biological processes.
Tons of cellular processes involve using the electric potential of different ion concentrations on the two sides of the cell membrane as a source of energy to conduct work.
One of the more famous examples is nerve conduction. Between nerve firings, sodium-potassium pumps expend energy to stuff sodium and potassium ions (Na- and K+, respectively) into high, unbalanced concentrations on the inside and outside of the cell membrane of the nerve’s axon.
Those concentrations are higher than they would be if they were balanced, and therefore there is said to be “chemical potential energy” available for use. The energy is released when channels are opened where the ions can flow to equalize across the membrane.
Basically it’s like having a bunch of springs wound tight and then banded. You snip the bands and the springs spring open, releasing that energy.
In nerve conduction, this happens in a wave (ie the release of that energy in one segment causes the next segment’s channels to open). This makes a wave of energy release that travels down the axon, and that’s the mechanism by which nerves conduct signals over long distances.
Back to your question. The sodium-potassium channel system is one of many such systems the body uses these ions for. Some ions happen to be called “electrolytes” because they turn water into an electrically-conductive substance, but that specific electrical property of being able to conduct a current isn’t directly used by the body.
To answer your second question, no electrolytes aren’t interchangeable. The nerve conduction thing I described requires sodium and potassium; it doesn’t work with other ions of the same charge.
However the body has other similar processes that also use other electrolytes — calcium is the only one I can think of — and those aren’t substitutable either.
Salt is not the only electrolyte the body needs, but it does account for the vast majority of electrolyte use.
There is, however, another separate type of chemical process that’s important for life, and that’s osmosis across a semipermeable membrane. Most of the times the body “needs electrolytes” what it really needs is salt. Not for this cross membrane pumping action, but rather just to ensure there is the correct ratio of solutes to solvent in the blood.
If you don’t have enough salt in your body, then your body will release water in order to maintain this balance. This is why if you’re really sweaty (amd have hence lost a lot of salt), and then you drink fresh water (unsalty), your body will just say “nope” and pee it right back out.
If you have lost both salt and water (you can test this by tasting your skin — if it’s salty your body has been sweating out salt), you need to take in both salt and water in order to retain the water.
This is why they sell salt tablets for construction workers.
TL;DR:
- Mostly, your body needs salt as its primary electrolyte
- This means water with some salt is a better rehydrator than just fresh water
- But your body also needs trace amounts of other electrolytes, like Calcium
- This makes gatorade slightly better than salt water as rehydration, because it’s got the other electrolytes too
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A core element of Idiocracy stuff
it's what plants crave!