Sweat is not made up of water alone. One also loses a lot of sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium and magnesium which needs to be replaced. (Source: Thinkstock Images)This is the third and the last article from the water-sweat series. As I have written in my previous two articles, our cells, collectively, are our biggest reservoirs of water. But when we need sweat to cool us, our body first takes water to manufacture the sweat from our blood.
Maintenance of blood volume is vital, so the loss of blood-water is quickly taken care of by drawing water out from the tissues and tissues in turn pull the water out from our cells. The same process happens when we take fluids – water first reaches the blood, then the tissues and then our cells. The fact is water in our body is not stagnant, but it is a forever moving substance – from blood to the tissues to the cells and vice versa. How does water move in our body from one compartment to another? Who or what pushes it, and what we must do to keep it moving to remain hydrated and healthy?
Like we need transport, let us say a car, truck, train or a plane to move faster and be more active, similarly many substances in our body must be transported across the body at the right places where they are used. We have carrier proteins that have affinity for specific substances like amino acids, salts, sugars and other nutrients that are taken by the carrier proteins in and out of our cells. Unfortunately water gets no such help; it is not actively transported into or from our cells. What then helps the water to travel across, how does it move in and out of our cells?
The answer is that it moves by osmosis, where sodium, potassium and some other minerals play an important role. These minerals (Sodium chloride, higher concentration outside the cells, and potassium chloride, higher concentration inside the cells, are most important for water transport) exist as ions. An ion is a mineral or element that has a positive or negative charge. This unstable ionic state allows the element to bond readily with water, making it possible for the body to absorb it. In this state, an element has specific positive or negative electrical signatures that cause a dynamic equilibrium to take place. The body can then facilitate changes to move water to the areas that need them. Water can directly pass through membranes of the cell in response to changes in ion concentration. In other words, water movement is indirectly controlled by pumping sodium and potassium across our cell membranes. It is therefore vital that we have a balanced concentration of these ions in our body-water. They make us osmotically fit.
When we sweat a lot we lose the minerals too, especially the sodium and also some potassium. Sweat is not made up of water alone. One also loses a lot of sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium and magnesium which needs to be replaced.
After prolong exercise or after losing large amounts of water in sweat, it is dangerous downing large quantities of water alone, it may jeopardize the electrolyte balance of the body making one feel bloated and nauseated. In fact, athletes who lose huge amounts of sweat are advised not to drink just water; they must have water and electrolytes. Drinking huge amounts of plain water after massive sweat loss leads to electrolyte imbalance. The brain is very sensitive to this and it may try and take in large amounts of water in to compensate for the electrolyte deficiency. In many a case this has lead to brain swelling and even death. We have heard about fit marathon runners dropping dead.
What is the right drink after excessive sweat loss?
A sport-drink that contains minerals and very little sugar is the best; it is thousand times better than cool colas, soft drinks, and even fruit juices that contain too much sugar. It quenches our thrust and it also replenishes the mineral loss, keeping up the body-water movement and hydrating our cells. If sports drinks are not available one can make it at home.
Take a liter of water, add a pinch of salt, only two spoons of sugar (it will not taste too sweet, it must not) and fresh lime juice (from two limes to provide enough potassium)
The small amount of sugar and minerals help water absorption in the guts. It is because they are actively transported across our guts into the body by carrier proteins, water just piggybacks. Avoid sugary soft drinks because they have an opposite effect. Coconut water is good too – but it lacks that bit of sugar that increases the water absorption in the guts.
This summer ask yourself, am I osmotically fit?
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