Ever since I started running, all I know is that I need to drink a sh*t ton of electrolytes. But I would like to understand why on a physiological level.
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Your body can’t actually move water, it just goes wherever it goes and if you stop it from going it will cause damage doing it anyway.
So instead of moving water around directly, your body moves electrolytes, these are big charged atoms, and very easy for your body to grab and move about. The thing about electrolytes is that water loves being around them.
So when your body wants to absorb water, it grabs the electrolytes in your food/drink and pulls them into your intestines, the water then follows. When you need to get rid of excess water, your kidneys move electrolytes into your urine and the water follows. Since electrolytes are also used to get water out in sweat, you can run out of them, then your body can’t control where it moves water and the water just does its own thing which can cause problems.
So when you exercise a lot you need electrolytes.
We didn’t use to need them because natural water (streams, wells) have electrolytes in them, but our artificially distributed tap water is deficient since electrolytes can cause problems in pipes, so we need to add them in occasionally
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