Do Electrolyte Supplements Really Do Anything?

Electrolyte powders come in a variety of flavors, mineral concentrations, and sweetener options. They are sold to athletes, dieters, and as a hangover cure. But how many of us can actually benefit from taking electrolytes? And how many of the hydration “facts” we hear on social media are actually myths?

If you’re expecting me to say that electrolytes are useless, that’s not entirely true. I love a cold LMNT when I come home from a sweaty summer run. I appreciate the many functions of electrolytes in the human body. But we need to analyze some of the claims that are popping up on social media as every influencer tries to sell you on their favorite brand of electrolytes. Most of them are trying to solve a problem that they themselves created.

But more on that in a minute. First, let’s look at what electrolytes actually do and who might benefit from them.

What are electrolytes?

Electrolytes are minerals we get from food, specifically those that become charged ions when dissolved in water. For example, table salt is sodium chloride. When you mix it with water, it breaks down into a positively charged sodium ion and a negatively charged chloride ion.

(The “electro” in the name comes from the fact that these ions have an electrical charge. If you think of water as a conductor of electricity – like the reason you shouldn’t drop a hairdryer in the bathtub – then you’ll actually understand that the conductive properties of dissolved minerals. Distilled water does not conduct electricity .)

Our body requires various chemical elements, including electrolytes, to function. We use sodium and potassium ions to activate our nerves and calcium to make our muscles contract, among other functions. And since we cannot produce chemical elements from scratch, we need to get them from food. When you hear about “vitamins and minerals” as micronutrients, those minerals include electrolytes. These electrolytes include:

• Sodium

• Potassium

• Chloride

• Magnesium

• Calcium

• Phosphate (which contains phosphorus)

Where do we get electrolytes?

Forget about supplements for a minute: we usually get our electrolytes from food. For example, anything that contains salt contains sodium and chloride. Potassium is found in many fruits and vegetables, especially bananas and coconut water, as well as leafy greens, potatoes and more .

According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans , there are only two minerals that people typically don’t get enough of. These are calcium and potassium.

Sodium is also mentioned in recommendations (and on food labels), but for the opposite reason: too much sodium can be bad for you, especially if you have high blood pressure. However, people who exercise a lot or sweat a lot may need more sodium than recommended, which is where electrolyte supplements come in.

Electrolyte supplements may help athletes who sweat a lot

When we sweat, we lose water and sodium. A 2011 review published in the Journal of Sports Science noted that athletes can lose four to seven liters of water per day if they exercise hard or in hot weather—that’s the cost of eight to 14 standard-sized water bottles. However, typical sodium loss can range from 3,500 to 7,000 milligrams.

Compare this to the recommendations for non-athletes: Most of us are advised to keep our sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams per day, or less than 1,500 if we’ve been advised to reduce our sodium intake to control our blood pressure.

While you may not consider yourself an “athlete,” it’s not hard to find yourself in a situation where you’re losing a lot of water and sodium, as well as other electrolytes, as a side effect. One way to illustrate this is to weigh yourself before and after your summer run. If you’re not peeing during this time, then any weight loss between the start and end of your run is likely due to water loss, at least partly from sweat. For example, if you lose two pounds, it will cost you a liter or two bottles of water.

The most important electrolyte to replace in this case is sodium. Trying to replace all that fluid with plain water without adding sodium can lead to hyponatremia , a dangerous deficiency of sodium in the body. (If you’re replacing electrolytes, you don’t need low-sodium sources. Coconut water is high in potassium, which is great, but its low sodium content makes it not a great option.)

Electrolytes can reduce harm from fasting or crash diets.

I’m not here to endorse long-term fasting or crash dieting, but in online fasting communities you’ll hear that extra electrolytes are critical to your health if you’re fasting. This is true.

If you don’t eat, you’re missing out on all the normal sources of minerals (including electrolytes) in your diet. While our bodies can go without most vitamins and minerals for at least a few days or weeks, electrolytes are needed more urgently.

I’m not going to give guidelines here; If you’re eating so little food that you’re at risk of electrolyte deficiencies, you really should be getting your information from a medical professional rather than an online blog. I will say that, unlike athletes who sweat, you need to consider more than just sodium. Please don’t assume that table salt (or Himalayan salt or salt with lemon juice) covers all your bases.

Electrolytes probably don’t help with hangovers

You’ve probably heard of using Pedialyte or Gatorade to prevent or “cure” a hangover; Some electrolyte supplement companies market products specifically for, as Waterboy puts it, “weekend recovery.”

But hangovers are a result of alcohol consumption , not dehydration or electrolyte deficiency. Cedars-Sinai reports that people with a hangover tend to have the same electrolyte levels as people without a hangover.

And honestly, you might be able to figure it out yourself. I was dehydrated and hungover. Despite some minor similarities (nausea, headache), these are completely different experiences. If you are dehydrated, a glass of water will immediately fix you. If you’re hungover, that bottle of Pedialyte will just help distract you while you wait for your liver to catch up with the overnight sluggishness.

Why Everyone on TikTok Wants You to Take More Electrolytes

So, if electrolyte supplements are really only useful for athletes and for some medical purposes (like rehydrating people who have had a bad bout of diarrhea), why are they everywhere in your food? Because these are additives, of course. Supplements are some of the best-selling products on the affiliate market: they’re cheap to make, cheap to ship, and in the case of electrolytes, can be used to make a great-tasting drink.

The electrolyte boom is also driven by growing recommendations to drink more and more water. All the health conscious girls carry around a huge water bottle (or Stanley glass, or whatever trend we’ve moved on to) and drink from it all day. ( It’s not obligatory .)

Ironically, the marketing ads I see most often on TikTok and the like are in response to this. Do you constantly go to the bathroom? Do you urinate almost transparently? You may be “over-hydrated.” Solution? Don’t drink less, no, no. The solution is to follow my link in bio and buy electrolytes to add to your water.

Or maybe you want a DIY solution. Since lemons have magical health properties ( just kidding , okay? ), we add lemon juice and sea salt to our water bottle. Some TikTok recipes call for a small amount of salt, so small that we can’t taste it. According to the World Health Organization on how much sodium we typically notice, it’s about one-tenth of a teaspoon, providing 200 milligrams of sodium per liter of water. Other recipes call for a full teaspoon of salt (2,300 milligrams of sodium) per 1 to 1.5 liters of water.

Salt isn’t the only electrolyte anyway, and I’m not sure what lemon should add besides flavor. (It does not contain significant amounts of other electrolytes .)

Some videos claim that adding electrolytes is necessary if you drink filtered water, but a liter of tap water only contains 2-3% of your daily value for calcium and magnesium (depending on where you get your water from), and less than 1%. other electrolytes. This way, you are not missing out on any important sources of electrolytes by filtering your water.

Is it harmful to drink a lot of electrolytes?

If you drink a ton of water, adding electrolytes to some (maybe not all) of your water may be a smart move. Just pay attention to your overall sodium intake and make sure you’re not reaching astronomical levels.

For example, if you’re already getting 2,500 milligrams from your diet (which you can track with an app like Cronometer ), two LMNT packets will get you up to 4,500 milligrams per day. As long as you don’t do a lot of sweaty outdoor exercise, it’s probably more than good for your health. Pay attention to the numbers and use a little common sense.

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