Hydration has nothing to do with water

By Kim Marquardt, RN MSN

This blog post is from the Nurse Kim archives of myth busting. I want to share some "alternative" or maybe just lesser known health and wellness viewpoints for you to chew on.

*These posts are not intended as official medical advice.

They ARE meant to be fun, informative, and thought provoking, hopefully sparking an interest for you to do your own research (you can start with the links I provide!) and discover the marvels of the human body, and how it can function at its optimal performance level if we understand how it works and interacts with our environment and our diet.

I have a passion for health and wellness through lifestyle and nutrition and have done thousands of hours of research in addition to being a registered nurse for 23 years. I have done A LOT of self-experimentation in and around diet, lifestyle, body care, and supplementation and have spent a lot of time looking into the science behind it all (or lack thereof!). Check back weekly for the latest post!

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HAPPY FALL SEMESTER ya’ll!!!!

There might not be a better time to discuss the topic of hydration! The hustle and bustle of the new semester has begun and we still have plenty of sunny and warm days ahead (yay!).

When we think of hydration, what comes to everyone’s mind? Naturally… drinking water. But what if I told you the goal of hydration is not really to ingest liquid? In order for us to flush this out (so many great puns to be had here), we need to understand WHAT we are doing and WHY we are doing it.

Let’s dive in 😁

Water Intoxication

Now on a more somber note (*sensitive subject warning), I am sure you have heard of people causing great bodily harm to themselves or even losing their lives to something called “water intoxication.” This is a real thing and no laughing matter. This happens because ingesting large amounts of water without electrolytes can literally wash the electrolytes (sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, etc.) OUT of your system causing your system to shut down.

These are extreme circumstances obviously and people who consumed an unusual amount of water for whatever reason, but this phenomenon points to what we are going to talk about in this blog post today, and what the ACTUAL goal of hydration is.

History Lesson

Up until modern times, when we drank water hundreds or thousands of years ago, we drank from streams, rivers, or wells. That water is VERY different from our distilled, filtered, bottled water today. Stream, river, and well water has minerals in it (i.e., electrolytes). Those minerals replenish the ones in our body, and the water is simply the delivery method for the electrolytes, NOT the source of value itself.

Drinking filtered/distilled water is nearly useless. It may feel good going down on a hot day and quench a surface level thirst momentarily, but your body actually wants you to ingest electrolytes. That is why you are thirsty.

Well? What should we do? A few simple solutions:

• Make sure you are consuming plenty of salt in your diet (salt is a vital mineral!). 
• Consider adding a pinch of salt to your water, or even your morning coffee (caffeine depletes the body of minerals).
• Add minerals/electrolytes to your filtered water, there are plenty of inexpensive options on the market (stay away from products that contain sugar. Sugar is not an electrolyte). 
• Drink mineral water instead of filtered water.
• NEVER consume large amounts of water in a short period of time without adding or replacing electrolytes.

Well… I hope this post helps ya’ll stay actually hydrated and not pretend hydrated over the next few hot months and beyond. Have a wonderful start to your semester and I will see you in next post!