Why is it that electrolytes are supposedly better at hydrating the body better than regular water?
In: Biology
It’s not that electrolytes are better than water. It’s that water with the right amount of electrolytes is better than water alone.
When the cells of your GI tract (stomach, intestines) want to absorb water. They don’t actually have the ability to pump water. They can pump charged particles, ions, like sodium and potassium. If the cells can pump enough ions to one side of a cell membrane, that side gains an ever so slightly higher level of electrical charge. Water, being attracted to charges, then follows passivity across the membrane into your body.
Basically, your cells don’t pump water around. They pump electrolytes around and water follows the electrolytes. So that’s how your cells and your body moves water inside (and outside like sweat).
If you drank nothing but pure, deionized water, you’d eventually die from electrolyte depletion. If you drank nothing but electrolytes, you’d die from electrical imbalances at the cellular level.
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