Electrolytes: Is it Essential for the Body?
source Edited with CanvaEveryone knows the word electronics, but does everyone know about electrolytes? surely not many know, including me (before writing this post). I remember hearing the word "electrolyte" for the first time when I saw the equipment of an electrician who was repairing electricity at my house, then I heard the word "electrolyte" when I watched an advertisement for an isotonic drink from Japan that advertised water containing electrolytes, a drink that can replace body fluids quickly and restore practical energy.
From that advertisement, I knew about electrolytes and that was all there was to it, I thought electrolytes were just electrical equipment and the names of substances in drinks. It turned out that I finally found out more deeply what electrolytes are, what are their benefits, and what is their relation to fluids in the human body.
I will discuss about electrolytes in this post. Hopefully, it can be beneficial information for all of us.
About Electrolytes
Electrolyte is an electrically charged mineral content that is in the human body, this substance is found in cells, tissues, and body fluids with different types and different functions. The general benefit of electrolytes is to help nerve and muscle activity, they also play a role in maintaining heart function, and these electrolytes function in keeping fluids in the body balanced.
As I explained earlier that there are various types of electrolytes, including:
- Sodium
- Potassium
- Chlorine
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- and several other types
source
Each type of electrolyte has a different function, but the benefits are the same, namely keeping cells, tissues, nerves, and muscles in the body healthy and normal. From this explanation, I finally understand why drinks containing electrolytes can help people who are exhausted after exercising or working because when the body is tired or sweating it will affect the amount of electrolytes in the body so that if a person is dehydrated it will cause an electrolyte imbalance in the body.
By consuming foods or drinks that contain electrolytes like isotonic drinks, you can increase body fluids, so that you can balance electrolytes in the body to stay hydrated.
Some of the negative effects a person experiences from an electrolyte imbalance in the body, like nausea, vomiting, weakness, headache, racing heart, and if it's worse can cause fainting. For the body to stay healthy and the internal organs to work properly, it is advisable to choose nutritious foods and drink enough mineral water to keep the body hydrated, so that the electrolyte content remains balanced.
I explained about the types of essential vitamins in a previous post. All of you can read them in the link below:
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I have recently discovered that we don't need as much sodium as I thought! I read in Loren Cordain's The Paleo Diet Revised that we don't need to consume any added salt, that natural foods contain all we need, that salt started to get mined like 10,000 years ago, and before that our ancestors did just fine, hunting under the African sun, without any added salt. I googled and found that the American Heart Association says we need even less than 500mg a day. And I checked on my cronometer app and I could easily get that just from the foods I eat. So I've been experimenting with a no-added-salt diet (except maybe a bit in my commercially prepared almond milk) for more than a month now, in the Cypriot summer, jogging and sweating under the sun, exercising as usual, drinking loads of water, and I haven't noticed any difference except a certain kind of . . . let's call it less pressure inside my body. This is honestly rather shocking to me! Anw, thought I'd be interesting to mention this under a post about electrolytes!
American Heart Association:
"The body needs only a small amount of sodium (less than 500 milligrams per day)"
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