Why does sodium-heavy liquids like pickle juice, chicken noodle soup, or saline hydrate you better than regular water when you’re dehydrated, but salt water dehydrates you?
In: 925
Osmosis is a complicated system, and something that our bodies rely on to function. It is the mechanism with which our cells control flow of material in and out of them. All life being just basically potential and concentration gradients.
So when you are dehydrated, you have lack of water in your body and cells. Right so just adding more water doesn’t actually solve the problem, it can make you worse. There is such thing as water poisoning. Now if you drink water that is too salty, that is basically poison to your cells, since due to physics of concretion gradients wanting to even out, your cells need to spend energy to keep their correct chemistry. Then your kidneys will try to remove that extra salt and for this they need water. So you dry out even more.
So what if you drink just the correct mix of water and salt? Which is like 0,3-0,4% if I recall right. Well then your body and cells have way easier time keeping the correct potential and concatenation gradients.
Keep in mind that water without electrolytes (salt), will dilute your body, meaning that overall you will have less electrolytes (salt) in your body; which are things you need. But drink too salty and your body will end up using more water than you drank to remove the salt.
There is actually a horrific way you can achieve a balance at which you will just survive by using salt water. This involves using salt water enemas. You will be sick and miserable, but you won’t die.
Latest Answers