Hydration and Peak Performance

swimmer athletes

People who exercise regularly need more water because they lose more water through sweating and breathing. Athletes need to quench their thirst even when they’re not thirsty, and avoid relying on the feeling of thirst to tell them when to drink.

Athletes will often hydrate throughout the day and especially at meal times when consuming electrolytes and sodium will help you retain the fluids and minerals you consume.

There are specific benefits of staying hydrated for athletes, including:

  • Improved circulation
  • Improved muscle function
  • Maintaining normal blood pressure

If athletes are working out less than an hour a day, water is generally sufficient to keep hydrated. However for those with extended, strenuous workouts, a sports drink with carbohydrates and electrolytes may be recommended. However be cautious, some sports drinks are high in calories due to added sugar. Some may contain caffeine, and some may have more salt than needed. Always read the label.

For athletes (and non-athletes alike) drinking enough water and staying properly hydrated has the following benefits:

1. Flushes toxins and prevents illness. When the body is dehydrated, the elimination of wastes is diminished. When the body is hydrated, healthier functioning and transportation of nutrients is restored.

2. Promotes weight loss. According to several studies, those who increase water consumption lose more weight than those who do not.

3. Increase energy levels. Studies have shown that staying hydrated before, during and after exercise can not only reduce fatigue but also improve endurance. In one scientific study it was concluded that drinking just 500ml of water can increase your metabolic rate by 30%.

4. Lower the risk of heart attacks. Drinking more water has been linked to a decreased risk of coronary heart disease.

For more info see Hydration in the Heat for Young Athletes from The Sports Institute at Washington University. It is recommended for athletes of all ages.

Hydrogen Water is an excellent drink for athletes. It can penetrate into the deep recesses of cells and cell walls to provide a quick and effective recovery. Please comment below if you are using Hydrogen Water in your workouts. We would like to know your experience.

Hydration and Electrolytes

hydration

Electrolytes are minerals in your body that carry an electrical charge. They are in your blood, urine, tissues, and other body fluids. The importance of electrolytes is that they are crucial to keeping your internal environment balanced and maintain homeostasis.

Homeostasis is the ability to maintain a constant internal environment in an organism as a response to environmental changes. For example, when you sweat, electrolytes are responsible for keeping water balanced inside and outside of your cells so that your muscles and organs work properly.

Electrolytes affect many important bodily functions. These include:

  • Balancing your body’s acid/base (pH) level

  • Moving nutrients into your cells

  • Moving wastes out of your cells

  • Making sure that your nerves, muscles, the heart, and the brain all work the way they should


The most important electrolytes include: Bicarbonate, Calcium, Chloride, Sodium, Potassium, Phosphorous, and Magnesium. We ingest these minerals from the foods we eat and the fluids we drink. Fruits and vegetables are a good source for electrolytes.

The following common situations that can lead to an electrolyte imbalance include:

  • Not drinking enough water. However, drinking too much water, especially in the absence of electrolytes. The amount of water that you take in should equal the amount you lose.
  • Rapid fluid loss from diarrhea or vomiting.
  • Kidney disease. Your kidneys regulate the concentration of electrolytes.
  • Poor nutrition, not getting the essential minerals needed.

Bottom line, to maintain a healthy electrolyte balance stay hydrated and consume a nutrient rich diet full of colorful fruits and vegetables.

Remember, low levels of electrolytes can negatively affect overall health. If you’ve had any issues with your electrolytes we would love to hear about it. Comment below. For more info see: What Are Electrolytes… And Why Are They So Important?

The Dangers of Dehydration

When you’re dehydrated, your body doesn’t have enough fluid and electrolytes to work properly. An average person on an average day needs about 3 quarts of water. But if you’re out in the hot sun or are exercising a lot, you need a lot more than that. You can also become dehydrated if you are vomiting, have diarrhea, or are sweating a lot. People who are elderly, very young, taking certain medications, or have a chronic illness are at greater risk.

Although they’re not the only organs affected by lack of water, the brain and eyes are especially vulnerable.

Signs of dehydration in adults include:

  • Being thirsty
  • Urinating less often than usual
  • Dark-colored urine
  • Dry skin
  • Feeling tired
  • Dizziness and fainting
  • Muscle cramps

If you think you’re dehydrated, drink small amounts of water over a period of time. Drinking too much all at once can overload your stomach and make you throw up. If you are exercising in the heat and losing a lot of minerals in sweat, sports drinks can be helpful. Avoid any drinks that have caffeine.

Lastly, thirst is not the best indicator of being dehydrated. If you get thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. An easy indicator is the color of your urine, pale and clear means you’re well hydrated. If it’s dark yellow or orange, you should drink more fluids.

The absolute best way to hydrate is with Hydrogen Water. H2 water gets absorbed into our cells quicker than regular water providing optimal health benefits such as protection against free radicals.

See our article, How Hydrogen Works for more information about Hydrogen and Free Radicals.

Importance of Hydration

hydration heart

The following is the first of our series on Hydration Health.

Water Is Essential For Life

Every cell, tissue and organ needs water to function properly. By weight, our bodies are approximately 60% water. Organs such as hearts, lungs, brains, and kidneys can be 70-80% water. Even our bones contain about 30% water.

The various functions in our body that depend on water include:

  • Making tears and saliva
  • Lubricating our joints
  • Regulating our internal body temperature by sweating and respiration
  • Dissolving waste and nutrients in the cell to allow for passage through walls and filters
  • Carries nutrients to cells, carries waste away from it.
  • Water in the bloodstream carries the metabolized proteins and carbs that we consume.
  • Essential for flushing waste mainly through urination
  • Acts as a shock absorber for brain, spinal cord, and fetus
  • Water is an integral nutrient to the life of every cell

How Much Water Do We Really Need?

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined that an adequate daily fluid intake is:

About 124 ounces or 15.5 eight oz cups equaling approximately 1 Gallon or 3.7 liters of fluids per day for an average man and About 92 ounces or 11.5 eight oz cups equaling approximately 3/4 of a Gallon or 2.7 liters of fluids per day for an average woman

These recommendations cover various fluids from water, beverages and food. About 20 percent of daily fluid intake usually comes from food and the rest from liquids.

When we read these recommendations we have to pause and count how much liquid do we actually ingest a day from various beverages and food. Most if not all will conclude that we don’t get anywhere near our daily requirement and that we survive in a continuous state of dehydration that will eventually catch up with us with disorders due to dehydration. However, most of us won’t associate dehydration as a factor in our metabolic disorders nor fully understand how our bodies have been compensating for our lack of hydration.

Today we are beginning to understand that there are actually two forms of metabolic Hydration to satisfy daily, which may explain why we need to drink so much water and beyond just quenching our thirst or recuperating from perspiration. One is the familiar need is the obvious one we quench when thirsty. The other one we that is easier to ignore is the metabolic hydration at the mitochondria of each of our cells. New science is now giving us vital information to begin to understand the impact of dehydration at the cellular level and the disorders associated with this consequence. Research now indicates that although our bodies can hydrate by simply our drinking liquids but our cells need to be electrically charged to hydrate to function properly. Therefore hydration at the cellular level is not just dependent on how much water a person drinks but how electrically charged the cells are to receive and absorb the water to hydrate the cell and expel waste.

Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)

Today we need to know a new term that we never new existed before, if we really want to understand the importance of hydration. It is Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP for short. ATP is the single source of energy responsible for all the vital functions that keep our cells healthy. To keep this in simple terms for conversation purposes ATP is the hydration vehicle that transports the nutrients into and waste out of -our cells. It also plays a key role in “Cell Signaling” as a communicator between so many active elements that support our cell functions as well as other vital functions related to preserving the healthy structure of our cells and immune support. To summarize ATP is the universal energy currency that drives the biological reactions that allow cells to function and life to flourish—making ATP a crucial player in the biological world.

Hydrogen and ATP

Again for conversation purposes we are going to refrain from the scientific explanations that you can easily find elsewhere, and simply say that today we know how Hydrogen stimulates ATP in the mitochondria, which is the energy center of the cell and how it promotes the hydration and vitality of the cell. More importantly we know that if the ATP is not electrically at optimum charge, then the cell is not functioning or hydrating properly which will be responsible for the cellular metabolic processes to malfunction into numerous disorders and some just from dehydration.

Tell us how you stay hydrated or suffer the consequences of not hydrating enough. Share your experience with others. We can only rely on each other because main stream media has sold out to their sponsors.