By: Danny Moon
Staying hydrated takes more than just increasing your fluid intake. Here’s everything you need to learn about hydrating yourself at a cellular level.
When we think of hydration, the first thing that comes to mind is plain water. You’ve probably seen many professionals talking about the amount of water that you need to drink to stay hydrated. However, simply filling your body with water doesn’t always ensure proper hydration.
If you want to make sure your body has enough fluids to work properly, you need to understand the way your cells work. Proper hydration only occurs if you manage to get the water inside your cells. Unfortunately, many people are not aware of this. They oversimplify the concept of hydration, which leads to creating inadequate hydration strategies. Finding the right strategy for your body requires the knowledge of all of the factors that come into play to stay properly hydrated.
INTRACELLULAR HYDRATION – THE CORNERSTONE OF HEALTH
Many myths surround hydration, so we first need to explain the way water circulates through our system. Your gut plays an essential part in making sure your body gets enough water. The water that you drink goes to your intestines and needs to transfer from the intestinal lining into your cells through the bloodstream.
About two-thirds of all the water in our body is in the lymph system and cells. So why do the majority of people have issues with ensuring actual hydration, even though they might drink enough water? The answer revolves around your cells’ ability to absorb water.
As we age, our body’s ability to move water from the extracellular environment to the inside of the cells weakens. This leads to the accumulation of oxidative compounds that damage our health and speed up the aging process. Experts believe that if you managed to stay perfectly hydrated, you could not only slow down aging but may even reverse it.
With the build-up of oxidative compounds, inflammation occurs. This is because hydrogen can’t interact with the cells properly. Since one of the main hydrogen carriers is water, ensuring that it enters your cells is the key to staying healthy.
IMPROVING HYDRATION WITHOUT INCREASING WATER INTAKE
Increasing your water intake isn’t enough to keep your cells hydrated. The main reason behind this is intracellular water hydrolysis. This is the process of water breaking down into hydrogen and oxygen. To maintain an optimal ratio, your cells need to contain enough water.
The problem occurs when the electrical charge across the micro membrane isn’t high enough to pull in water. So if the only thing you do is drink more water, the only thing that will happen is that you’ll pee it out before it enters the cells. The solution is to increase the electrical charge. The good news is that there’s an easy solution for this, and it involves fiber and electrolytes.
THE ROLE OF ELECTROLYTES AND FIBEr
When it comes to micro membranes, the intake of fiber and electrolytes is paramount. Fiber helps your body absorb water at a higher level, and you can find sources of fiber in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and many other foods. If you maintain a good fiber intake, you will rehydrate much faster, without the need for more water.
To build electrical charges necessary for proper hydration, drinking water rich in electrolytes is of the utmost importance. They increase the level of electrical charge across the membranes, thus ensuring higher water absorption. This way, your cells pull in the water you drink and you’re hydrated at a cellular level. However, it’s important to know that you shouldn’t drink electrolyte-rich water only. Instead, drink plain water and electrolyte-rich water intermittently.
THE FINAL WORD
Now that you understand how cellular hydration works, you can make the necessary changes to ensure proper hydration. This will not only improve your health but also give you more energy and slow down aging, among other benefits.
By: Danny Moon
April 19, 2024
