: why little salt in water hydrates you but too much salt in water dehydrates you?

Question

You can drink preworkout with little salt in it to be more efficient during workouts. But if you drink sea water before a workout, you’ll die. Why?

In: Biology

Answer 1

You need some salt for your body to function.

There is that phenomenon called osmosis. When you have a permeable membrane, such as a cell membrane and you have water with different concentration of dissolved salt on both sides, the water will cross the membrane and try to make both sides to have the same concentration.

So, when you drink something that has less salt content than is an inside of a thirsty cell, the cell can absorb that water. If you drink something that has more salt content, the cells in contact with that drink will lose their water.