Electrolytes in the Summer

Hi, this is Dr. Starkey. Welcome back to Trace Your Day.

You know, this is the time of season or the time of year that we get a lot of questions on electrolytes. Even though on the calendar it looks as though we should be getting closer to the summer months, it feels a lot like we’re still stuck in the fall months.

One minute we have 80-degree weather one day and the next day we’re back into the 40s or even in the 30s. But I think that this huge fluctuation, is, it’s important that we keep our proper hydration.

Yet, one of the questions that we constantly get is what kind of electrolytes should I be taking or what form? And I think the important question that we should be asking is one, are we properly hydrating ourselves daily?

I love the question as we’ve talked in the past about how much water we should be getting. And that should be about half our body weight in ounces of water daily. So, depending on the size of the person that we’re talking, that number can fluctuate quite drastically. But at the same time, making sure that we’re putting those electrolytes back in.

Now there’s the question at hand is electrolytes. What are electrolytes?

And of course, ultimately, having an electrolyte imbalance can occur if we have too much or too little water in the body. Electrolytes are, of course, found throughout the entire body, whether it be in our cells, our tissues, our organs, our bone. They’re throughout the entire body, yet at the same time, their name refers to the fact that they are electrically charged. They’re the communicators.

Yet, what they do within the body I think is probably most important in the fact that they help with proper brain and heart function. They enable the muscles to be able to relax and contract effectively. They allow for nerves to be able to send signals, remove waste from the body, move nutrients into the cells, balance water levels. So without them, we don’t function properly. We face a lot of challenges if we’re not properly balanced with these electrolytes.

And yet, you know, if we lived in a perfect world, and again, you hear me say that all the time, if we lived in a perfect world, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. You know, it would be in the very water that we drink, the very foods in which we eat, the environment in which we live.

And yet, today with the food and beverage choices that we have, it can be very difficult even with the products available on the marketplace. I think we should be looking and reading and studying up on what it is that we’re putting into our bodies. But you know, what’s most important to me is that the two vital organs that help with a lot of our electrolyte balancing is our kidneys and our liver. Which, of course, help maintain that electrolyte balance in the body.

If a person is eating a variety of foods, drinking enough fluids, electrolytes usually stay at their right levels, but when it comes right down to it, we have macro electrolytes and micro electrolytes. And those micro electrolytes are those little tiny trace minerals that should be in a full balance, a full spectrum of those little tiny electrolytes that we should be getting.

The very soil that we should be consuming from should be offering these trace minerals to us, but the macro electrolytes is where we typically focus. And the major electrolytes are sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and chloride. Those are the ones that we’re most familiar with. And those are elements that are needed in more than 100 mg a day.

And yet when it comes right down to it, I think of our lifestyles right now. One minute we’re out in the weather because it’s so beautiful. We’re hopefully perspiring. We increase our respiration and our perspiration, right? But sometimes we’re not properly putting those electrolytes in during that process, so we start feeling some telltale indicators.

And you know, we’re so much of a reactive society instead o fa proactive society. I think with the information at the touch of buttons today, it’s amazing what we can learn – it really is – as far as what’s available to us on our iPhone or iPad or our computers. I mean, there’s a lot of information.

But when we start looking at how we should be supplying this demand, it could be the very beverages of choice. You know, alcohol is a diuretic. So is coffee. These can leech the body of our electrolytes. Medication use can rob us of these electrolytes, which is important that all that are taking any form of prescription drugs should be, we should be looking and reading and following up on what electrolytes might be pulled from our bodies by taking them.

We also of course have a lot of athletes that sometimes overexert themselves in the gym or in a workout that aren’t putting that proper electrolyte balance back in.

So when we get to that point, we have to start looking at telltale indicators. And these telltale indicators can be, of course, headaches, confusion, dizziness, nausea, alkalosis, arrhythmias, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle spasms, fatigue, delirium.

You know, these are all symptoms of dehydration. Typically, with the common consumer, we’ll start getting little twitches or spasms in places that we probably should pay very close attention. Our bodies give us wonderful indicators as to what our body’s needs are.

So if you start noticing a little twitch or spasm. I hear these individuals that I talk to say something to the effects that, “I noticed a little twitch on the corner of my nose or in the corner of my lip and I just thought it was cute.”

But then, of course that can go to a spasm and ultimately that can lead to a full-blown muscle cramp. And anybody that’s ever experienced a full-blown muscle cramp knows that that’s not something that we want to experience again. Especially those night cramps. Even after the cramp stops spasming or it releases, we might experience soreness for days after.

So that’s something that we need. We need to pay attention to our bodies and what our bodies are trying to indicate. That there might bean imbalance.

Yet, if we allow this to go on and we’re not paying attention or we’re not addressing it by properly hydrating or putting these electrolytes back in, then it can get extremely serious. And of course, that could lead to seizures or even a coma. These electrolytes are so important to our overall well-being. And yet, what do we have? What can we do for our own health?

I like to take it right back to the basics. I really do. I think these trace minerals – you know, oftentimes, we’re drinking these filtered, these distilled, these RO waters. And I’ve talked on multiple occasions about this.

Yes, we’re drinking uncontaminated water, but we’re also drinking imbalanced. There’s no minerals in them. We’ve got to put those minerals back in them. And I think this is a key place we can start.

I don’t care if you’re a world class athlete or a professional couch potato. Remember, we’re constantly losing these electrolytes. You don’t have to exercise. You don’t even have to go outside to lose your electrolytes.

Just through respiration, perspiration, urination, and defecation, we’re constantly losing these electrolytes. So again, just because you don’t go to the gym doesn’t mean that you don’t need to be putting these electrolytes back in.

And of course, as we start getting closer to the summertime, that’s when we really start to see our imbalances occur in the fact that if you’re out in the heat and you’re not drinking enough, you’re going to find yourself in a crisis quickly.

Now, here’s the one thing that I love to do. I love to recommend putting the Trace Minerals into all the water that we drink at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And yet, for those that the water that we drink or consume or should be consuming outside of that time frame, we have some wonderful products.

Two that I really like to recommend is the 40,000 Volts and the Endure. Now, people ask the question, what’s the difference between the40,000 Volts and Endure versus the ConcenTrace?

The ConcenTrace Trace Minerals are just the trace minerals. Yes, there’s a couple of macro electrolytes in there such as the chloride and the magnesium, but primarily, 99% of that is trace minerals. Yet the 40,000Volts and the Endure have more sodium, more potassium, more calcium. So they’re the macro electrolytes in a liquid form that we offer.

So I like to recommend putting the 40,000 Volts or the Endure. Again, it’s personal preference. You look at them. Find out which one works best for you. And you can put that into your water that you’re drinking while you’re biking or going to the park or whether you’re employed to work outside. I think this is an important factor to help keep your body healthy and strong.

The way that I look to electrolytes is I like to protect the body from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to bed. And the way that I do that is I have that knowledge to put those minerals and trace minerals back in, whether it be at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and at bedtime.

And then throughout the entire day, I’m either taking, depending on what the activity is, if you’re an athlete and a part of your day is working out, we can put more into a tablet than we can into a liquid. So, we have an electrolyte stamina tablet that I like combining these two.

Oftentimes, we look at our athletes and they love to focus on pre workouts and post workout supplements. But I like to support the athlete throughout the entire workout. And that’s where our liquids and powders come in that we can put into water during a workout and support and protect yourself throughout the entire workout, not just pre and post.

So whether it be a tablet, a liquid, a powder, a powdered effervescent. We have the ability to put these electrolytes back inconsistently, on a daily basis, and ultimately, help our bodies properly balance. And I think a part of that is, I know that using the word healed, you’ve heard me say before, we need to throw the word “healed” out of our vocabulary. Because we’re constantly healing. We never stop healing. The minute we walk outside of our homes and we take a breath of the fresh air and we smell exhaust fumes, your body is healing from something. Your body is on the attack.

Whether it be that we’re out in the great outdoors or within our homes, we need to be protecting and maintaining these proper electrolytes.

Now, there is one product that I like to recommend to our aging population that are suffering from those night cramps. Now yes, I would highly recommend those trace minerals.

But if you feel uncomfortable about taking those electrolyte products, we do have a product called No! Muscle Cramps. This is a product that you can take at bedtime. I recommend taking it at dinnertime and preparing your body for that time in which you’re about to go to sleep. And find out if this product is right for you.

And that product can be used at all ages, not just our aging population. But we have a wonderful array of products and flavors. We also of course just recently came out with an electrolyte gummy, which I think is the first of its kind.

So there are some wonderful delivery processes that we can help our bodies properly maintain that electrolyte balance throughout the entire summer months and we should be able to enjoy each day and night and be able to look forward to the next day of activities.

I hope that by taking this information, researching it for ourselves, looking at what’s available to us, whether it be that it’s our taste buds that are making our ultimate decision, or our cramps or spasms –whatever that might be – I hope that one of these products will help you achieve that optimal health.

Until next week, best of health.

Thanks for listening in. If you have any topics you want covered, let us know on our Instagram page @tracemineralsresearch. We’ll see you back here next week on Trace Your Day.