Once upon a time electrolytes were simply a buzz word in branding circles for making sugary water sounds more “sciency”.
These days it is big business as people have slowly twigged that a eating too little sodium (an essential mineral, via salt), might not be the best idea.
See below showing a U shaped curve on the risk of CVD, MI and heart failure.
But one idea that is hard to shift in the public mind is too much salt = high blood pressure.
This has been the subject of a lot of research and was reviewed by the Cochrane group:
Note, 28 g of salt is too much, and 10g is about right, which is 11 g sodium and 4g sodium respectively.
But even then, the blood pressure drop was 5.7 systolic and 2.9 diastolic in people with high blood pressure.
These are not meaningful numbers clinically, they might be statistically, but they would not be the difference between high and normal or medication vs drug-free.
And the reality is, sodium is an essential mineral the same as iron or magnesium; your body simply must have it.
So, let’s consider what the body will do, if it does not get enough?
Well, the kidneys will either let sodium out via urine or it will retain sodium by re-absorbing it.
The control of which is dictated by ALDOSTERONE.
If you do not have enough sodium, your adrenal cortex turns up ALDOSTERONE, and you RETAIN SODIUM.
And this has been demonstrated time and time again.
If you go on a low-salt diet, your body will simply retain more sodium to maintain its reserves by increasing ALDOSTERONE by an average of 127%.
Not only that, low salt diets also INCREASE CHOLESTEROL (2.9%) and TRIGLYCERIDES (6.3%) and ADRENALINE (14%) / NORADRENALINE (27%).
And, of course, an increased the risk of death.
If we look at it (as we always do at ACN), through the lens of evolution, and apply some common sense, things seem more obvious.
Hence, there are now a plethora of electrolytes on the market, with salt as the main ingredient.
And we have joined them, with this beauty.
Yes, we use Himalayan pink salt, about 1.6 grams giving you 640 mg sodium, in a refreshing lemon and lime flavour.
On the back we even have a helpful gauge to help patients work out how much water to add:
Electrolytes are much more effective if they are sipped over a period of hours. This helps keep your energy maintained especially over the afternoon, after lunch.
Note, we also add in 500 mg of potassium and 150 mg of magnesium bisglyincate.
I would invite you to compare these doses of potassium and magnesium, whihc are therapeutic, to those of the VAST MAJORITY on the market.
99% have lots of salt (it is the cheap part of the formula FYI), but totally inadequate doses of potassium (RDA/RI = 2000 mg, though they like you to have 3600 mg daily, and many researchers feel 4000-5000 mg is better).
And magnesium, you need at least 150 mg to really make a change, often more.
Compare and contrast the doses of potassium and magnesium on the two other brands on the left, to ours on the right.
If you want more salt/sodium, then simply add some more salt to your water with electrolytes.
Next time we will delve more into why potassium is so low in most people, and it benefits in health.