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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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How does PerfectAmino actually work? And what is it really doing in our bodies?
PerfectAmino is the perfect protein source. But there is a point there. It’s the perfect protein source. It isn’t protein in itself, but amino acids, the building blocks of protein.
When these amino acids are bonded together into chains, that’s when it becomes a protein.
That’s what any protein molecule you eat is — hundreds or thousands of different amino acids all bonded together into a long chain.
But PerfectAmino is different than other protein sources you’ve had. Very different.
You can find the PerfectAmino Users Guide here, which covers how to get the best results depending on what you are trying to achieve.
But to know what it's actually doing in your body, read on.
Here’s a quick explainer before we jump into what it does in our bodies.
The hardest part of any diet, whether for fat loss, muscle gain or health, is getting over our cravings for sugar and junk food.
There's no question there.
The only real question is how? It can be so hard!
I understand. And in case you feel alone in this struggle — you're not.
It's the hardest part of any diet or lifestyle change, and where most people fall off.
But to know how to fix this we need to know exactly what's causing it.
And one thing I can tell you is not causing it... is you having a "weak will."
That's not it at all.
We've spoken a lot about hormones, but not how toxins affect these.
Testosterone levels have been dropping for decades, while estrogen levels have risen sharply. And thyroid is a huge problem.
Hormonal imbalances are no longer just being deficient in one or another hormone.
There are exact chemicals in the environment, in our food, air, and water, which didn’t exist before, chemicals that block hormones from being created, block them from being able to communicate their instructions to a cell, disrupt their normal actions, or impersonate them entirely.
And while this affects muscle-building and fat loss significantly, its effect goes far beyond this.
In this article we cover what's happening and what you can do about it.