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by Dr. David Minkoff June 03, 2020 4 min read
What if achieving your next level of high performance didn’t have anything to do with building more muscle?
According to research, your highest level of optimal health and athletic performance may be more about using the resources you already have to their highest capacity…
And it all comes down to a new way of managing your hydration.
Athletes sweat. A lot. And with that sweat, they lose huge quantities of electrolytes.
You’ve almost certainly heard about the importance of electrolytes at some point. And you probably already “know” about the benefits of staying hydrated.
But did you know that dehydration of even 1-2% significantly compromises performance?
Dehydration of 3% can lead to cramps, heat exhaustion, and even stroke!
And in hot conditions, even 1 hour of intense exercise can cause dehydration of up to 3%.
Now, most of this is nothing new.
Professional sports teams and athletic competitions are plastered with sponsorships from “sports drink” companies claiming all kinds of benefits of their neon-colored electrolyte liquids.
But behind all the marketing hype and multimillion dollar commercials and celebrity endorsements… what really works? And what do you really need?
In this article we’re going to show you exactly what matters most when it comes to your hydration.
Let’s start with a definition. Electrolytes are minerals that give water –– and your blood –– an electrical charge.
They create the critical internal environment your cells and organs need for optimal function.
Beyond that, they are involved in hundreds and hundreds of chemical reactions necessary for your health and athletic performance.
The most important ones include: sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, chloride, and magnesium.
Beyond the biochemical, they have a powerful effect on your health and performance.
The right balance of electrolytes can...
[1,2]
On the other side of the coin, dehydration and loss of electrolytes can create massive problems.
Here’s just a few of the consequences of dehydration and electrolyte loss:
[1-6]
From that list, it’s easy to see that electrolytes profoundly affect athletic performance.
There are several factors that come together to make this happen.
The negative effects don't stop with the muscles. Compounding the problems of dehydration is the protein breakdown. This often happens during intense exercise.
When muscle cells break down protein for energy, they create nitrogen waste in the form of urea.
If you’ve ever made it through an intense workout, you may have noticed your urine becomes a bright yellow. That’s from the extra urea caused by muscle breakdown.
The problem is that this urea –– combined with thickened blood from dehydration –– places a lot of stress on the kidneys and can catalyze further kidney damage [7].
Clearly, dehydration and loss of electrolytes has some profound consequences on our health and performance.
But before you reach for the nearest sports drink, there’s something you need to know…
The sports drink industry developed in the late 80s and early 90s. This was the same period of time that saw the rise of “Fat Free” as a “healthy” choice (it’s not).
Sports drink companies followed typical food-product marketing protocols and added sugar to their drinks to make them taste better –– nevermind the performance-crashing effects this can have on your insulin levels.
Since then, they experimented with new chemicals and synthetic carbohydrates –– ALL of which spike your insulin and impair performance.
And with so much data about ketosis, paleo-style diets, and the countless benefits of reducing sugar intake, many athletes and weekend warriors are left without an option to stay hydrated and in peak performance.
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We’ve all heard of gluten.
We’ve heard that it can be bad for us, not bad for us, mildly bad for us, etc.
But what is it really and what does it actually do?
Gluten is a mixture of proteins found in many grains, processed foods and commercial drinks that contain two specific proteins called gliadin and glutenin.
Now, some people know they are sensitive to these, either severely or only mildly, but there are many more who actually are sensitive and experiencing reactions without knowing what’s causing it.
The amount of toxins coming into our body every day, from the environment and our food and water sources, grows every year. And it is affecting us in many ways.
But one area it affects us quite severely is in our microbiome, where these toxins kill off the beneficial bacteria that help to produce key calming neurotransmitters like GABA and serotonin.
We covered the microbiome in the last article: a colony of trillions of bacteria in our colon, and how it affects every aspect of our health, our hormones, our longevity and the ability to build muscle, lose body fat and stay fit.
Our body's ability to relax, de-stress, recover, and sleep deeply is heavily determined by one area of our body overlooked more often than almost any other — our Microbiome.
This colony of trillions of bacteria living in our large intestine helps produce the calming, relaxing, cortisol-lowering, and sleep-giving neurotransmitters GABA and serotonin.
These bacteria have more to do with our overall health, calmness of mind, nerve function, ability to sleep, ability to burn fat and build muscle, and even our hormones than you might think.
This colony, made up of about 500 different species of bacteria, is called the Microbiome.