While there is some conflict about the best way to rehydrate and maintain energy levels during physical activity, one thing that is not debated is the importance of hydration. Every cell, tissue, and organ in your body needs water to work correctly. Your body uses water to maintain its temperature, manufacture hormones, remove waste, and lubricate joints.  Water even acts as a “shock absorber” for the brain and spinal cord.  Essentially, you need to be hydrated to be healthy.  This is why a human can survive significantly longer without food than without water.

Research indicates that for each pound (16 ounces) of water weight we lose, we need to drink more than 16 ounces of water to make up for it due to the way our intestines absorb water before it reaches the bloodstream. This is in addition to the approximately 64 ounces of water we need to be drinking everyday anyway.

Here’s something interesting to keep in mind: people don’t typically feel thirsty until they have lost around 2-3% of their body’s water. However, mental performance and physical coordination start to become impaired before thirst kicks in, typically around just 1% body water loss.

Anatomy of a sports drink

It wasn’t until the 1990s, thanks to some popular advertising campaigns, that sports drinks really boomed in popularity. Most sports drinks are comprised of three main components: electrolytes, carbohydrates, and water. We all know the importance of water, but the value of electrolytes and carbohydrates make them worth learning a little more about.

Electrolytes: Electrolytes (such as sodium, potassium, chloride, and magnesium), our body struggles to maintain and regulate nerve and muscle function, acidity levels, and fluid levels. Electrolytes also maintain your blood volume and sweat rate, since electrolytes like sodium allow the body to better retain the water needed to make more blood.

Carbohydrates: Although carbohydrates are sometimes given a bad name by certain diet trends, your body actually likes carbohydrates because they are your muscles’ main source of energy when working at moderate to high intensity.

When you consume carbs (simple or complex) before exercise, they can help performance by “topping off” muscle and liver energy stores (glycogen). According to Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, consuming carbohydrates during exercise results in better exercise performance for 1 hour sessions of intermittent high intensity exercise, this is because consuming carbs while exercising maintains blood glucose levels. Consuming carbs after exercise helps replenish your muscles’ glycogen levels. It is for these reasons that carb-containing sports drinks are believed to help boost your physical performance.

Are sports drinks better than water?

A comprehensive and well-balanced sports drink is a valuable tool for those who push themselves athletically as well as those whose idea of a good workout is putting in some time in the garden on a hot day. If you are not often engaging in high-intensity exercise, you don’t need to be regularly consuming sports drinks. However, if you feel especially thirsty and sweaty after working in the yard or going on a long walk (especially in the hot and humid summer months), a well-formulated sports drink could be a great way to quickly restore proper electrolyte, carbohydrate, and fluid levels to the body.

What to look for in a sports drink

For starters, it should taste good.  If you like it, you will consume it and stay hydrated.  Then, you need enough carbohydrates to give you energy, but not an excessive amount. It should be about 6-8% of the drink or about 21-28 grams of carbohydrates per 12 ounces.

A sports drink should also include the proper electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride, and magnesium). In particular, make sure it includes around 100 mg of sodium per 16 ounces (but no more than around 200 mg).

Also be sure to look for magnesium. Magnesium plays a key role in 300 enzymatic reactions and is a key nutrient in energy production that is difficult to obtain from the typical diet. Magnesium bis-glycinate (magnesium attached to the amino acid glycine) is the choice form as it ensures increased absorption and enhanced bioavailability of magnesium in the body for cellular metabolism and glucose regulation.

Many Americans are thought to consume inadequate levels of magnesium from their diet. Very few sports drinks contain magnesium, which is strange when one considers magnesium’s role in energy levels.

When most people think of sports drinks, they think of Gatorade and its main rival, Powerade. While these two brands have done the best job of marketing themselves and becoming household names, it does not mean that they are the best. Gatorade and Powerade have little to no magnesium whereas Endura contains 174mg per serving. Powerade uses high-fructose corn syrup, a cheaper alternative to cane sugar, in many of its drinks. While the science is not completely settled on the matter, many avoid high-fructose corn syrup whenever they can due to its possible links to metabolic disorders like obesity and diabetes and Gatorade, in an attempt to make their artificially-flavored drinks look the color their marketing gurus want, uses artificial food coloring like red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, and blue 1.

For those engaging in very light exercise, simple water will likely work just fine for you. But if you are exerting yourself, going for more than an hour, feeling particularly dehydrated, or living in a particularly hot area (or are prone to excessive sweating) a high-quality, specially-formulated sports drink like Endura could be just what you need to stay cool.

We hope this slide show was helpful and informative. Should you have questions, or suggestions, please feel free to fill out our Ask the Doctor form found at the Doctors Corner.

Yours in health,

Dr. Gregg Gittins

www.oakwaynaturals.com