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The 8% Newsletter

Hey 8%er!

Summer may be slipping away, but hydration? That’s a year-round, 24/7 commitment. Whether you're running a marathon or just some errands, hydration is the secret sauce that keeps you energized, focused, and feeling your best. But here’s the thing: hydration isn’t just about guzzling down gallons of water. Nope, there's a bit more science to it, including the often-overlooked role of electrolytes.

Let’s dive into the wild world of hydration, uncover why it’s crucial, and break down the role of electrolytes in keeping you at peak performance.

 

What Is Hydration and Why Does It Matter?

When you think of hydration, your mind probably jumps straight to water. While chugging water is definitely important, hydration is about maintaining the right balance of fluids in your body. In the context of our body we can say that hydration is about maintaining homeostasis, aka balance. This means that when we lose water (dehydrate) we need to replace it by hydrating to maintain homeostasis. 

Here’s where it gets interesting. Water makes up about 70% of your body, duh, and is involved in pretty much every function—from regulating body temperature to cushioning joints and transporting nutrients. But it’s not just about how much water you have; it’s also about how well that water is doing its job. That’s where electrolytes come into play.

 

Electrolytes: The MVPs of Hydration

Electrolytes are like the pit crew in a Formula 1 race, small but essential for keeping things running smoothly. These are minerals like sodium, chloride, potassium, and magnesium that carry an electric charge and are vital to our health. When you sweat, make yellow snow, cry, or even breathe for that matter, you’re losing electrolytes. But why is that important? Picture this: 

  1. Your body needs to have a concentration of electrolytes to water of 1:1 in your body (this isn’t actually the case, but bear with us for a second).

  2. You lose 10% of your electrolytes because you sweat more due to intense heat, so you are now at 0.9:1. Now remember, your body is a neat freak, and needs everything to be balanced. Namely, it needs a 1:1 ratio and since it can’t summon electrolytes out of thin air it decides to drop the water a bit to get that ratio back to where it was. 

  3. So now you’re down 10% of your water weight, and voila, we are back to the magical 1:1 ratio. Only now you have 10% less water in your system and boy are you feeling like something is wrong.

But trust us, the alternative is worse. Funny enough, your body is trying to protect you (as always) from hyponatremia, aka electrolyte imbalances that can mess you up pretty quick. 

In summary, electrolytes are super important for everything in the body, but their function depends on their concentration. That is how we can conduct nerve signals, contract the muscles that beat in our hearts and make sure that our cells are able to maintain all their vital processes. When we lose too many electrolytes our bodies will dump extra water in order to get back the golden ratio that is needed for each electrolyte. This highlights the importance of including electrolytes in your water to make sure that you are in fact including enough so that your body will be able to hold onto that water and not eliminate it.

 

Why Sodium and Chloride Aren’t Enough

“Electrolytes? Oh, you mean salt, right?” Well, not exactly. Sodium and chloride are essential, sure, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Most people get more than enough of these from their diet—so much so that the CDC reports an average intake of 3,300 mg of sodium a day, which is 40% over the recommended maximum. So what’s missing?

Potassium: A staggering 97% of American adults don’t get enough potassium. Think about that for a second. This isn’t some obscure mineral—it’s crucial for muscle function and balances out sodium’s penchant for making your cells shrivel up like raisins. No one wants raisin cells.

Magnesium: About 61% of adults are low on magnesium. And while it’s not directly involved in shoving water into cells, it’s a backstage hero. Magnesium regulates sodium and potassium pumps, making sure electrolytes and water go where they’re needed.

OceanHydrate, The Electrolyte Champion

Do you have electrolyte powders at home? If so grab for a second, we are going to look at the nutrition facts. We’ll make a few predictions: 

  1. Most conventional hydration powders have plenty of vitamins, sometimes unfortunately more than the amount of minerals by weight! Why? Easy, vitamins are very cheap to purchase in large quantities. It is what you may call a functional filler, cheapening their price while appearing to provide value where there may not be any. 

  2. Let me guess, more salt than anything else? Again, salt is a necessary electrolyte but it is quite cheap to produce. So like the vitamins mentioned above they increase perceived value of the product while reducing their costs and becoming more profitable. 

  3. Does it have any of the other electrolytes? Namely potassium and magnesium? 50 times out of 100 the answer will be a flat out no, and 49 times out of 100 if the answer is yes the amounts will be very small, too small for you to feel a difference when hydrating with it. 


For those of us who look for the best both qualitatively and quantitatively look no further than OceanHydrate Sports. Providing a whopping 2500 mg of electrolytes per serving, including 1505mg of chlorides, 440 mg of Sodium, 194 mg of Magnesium and 375 potassium you can rest assured that your hydration and electrolyte needs are more than met. 

Did we mention that, like the rest of the OmniBlue roster, it contains 70+ trace minerals to help not only hydrate you but also remineralize? Yeah… if you haven’t already it’s time to start giving your body exactly what it deserves… the best!

 

Final Thoughts

Here’s what it all boils down to: hydration is more than just drinking water. To really keep your body functioning at its best, you need the right balance of fluids and electrolytes. Plain water might keep you going, but without the right electrolytes, you’re only scratching the surface of what your body truly needs.