salt of the earth

All About Electrolytes

Here’s a little thought experiment: “electrolytes.” What’s the next word that comes to mind? If you’re like most people, it’s probably “Gatorade.” And indeed, the good folks at PepsiCo have done an amazing job at bringing electrolytes into our national consciousness, all in the name of selling us a sugary beverage that comes in an array of radioactive colors. But are sports drinks the best source of electrolytes? And what the heck are electrolytes, anyway?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic lately, and not just because it’s been punishingly hot and humid where I live. But I’ll get into that later. For now:

don’t skimp on the salt

The original Gatorade was invented in 1965 by scientists at the University of Florida as a way of keeping their athletes from collapsing during summer practices in The Swamp (Florida Gator-ade, get it? Get it???). Early versions actually tasted less like a soft drink and more like seawater, thanks to their high salt content. Reportedly, some players would even vomit after drinking it.

Nevertheless, its success at keeping them from cramping up on the field meant that the drink’s reputation grew, and off it went. (There’s a lot more to say about the brand’s 50-year history, which is actually really interesting, but we’ll save that for another time).

So what are these electrolytes that give the sports beverage its magic? Put simply, they are minerals that the body needs in order to function properly, including calcium, magnesium, potassium and yes, sodium. Notice I didn’t say glucose. The sugar in sports drinks is just there to cover up the taste of the actual electrolytes, and maybe give a kick of energy to the (carb-dependent) athlete.

We lose these minerals when we sweat, and they’re vital to muscle function, so the association between electrolytes and sports is a natural connection. But what else do they do?

electrolytes on the brain

It turns out that electrolytes are vital to brain functioning. Sodium helps regulate the electrical impulses that go from neuron to neuron. And this is the main reason I’ve been thinking about this topic lately. I recently watched a lecture by Angela A. Stanton, PhD — neuroeconomist, author of the book Fighting the Migraine Epidemic, and herself a migraineur. In her passionate talk, she states that all of the various triggers for migraines — from barometric pressure to sensory overload to stress — upset the electrolyte balance in the brain, and this is what causes the migraine reaction.

Usually, she says, it’s low sodium that creates the problem. This took me back to a conversation I had with Dr. Robert Cywes at the Low Carb USA conference. He told me that he advises his patients with migraines to carry a small salt shaker in their pocket. When they experience an aura (the precursor to a full-blown migraine), they open up the shaker and take a hit of salt on their tongue and can often stop it in its tracks. He speculated that this might work with the aura that precedes seizures as well. I was skeptical, but I did order a 6-pack of cute little Redmond’s Real Salt shakers from Amazon:

So far, I haven’t needed them, but I keep them around the house, in my office, and in the car, just in case. I figure it can’t hurt. I also remember that after a seizure a few years ago, the ER doc let me know that my sodium levels had tested low, and he figured that must have been the cause. I was surprised — it was the first I was hearing about this sodium-seizure connection. But according to a 2016 review in the Journal of Clinical Neurology, “Quite surprisingly, despite its clinical relevance, this issue has received very little attention in the scientific literature, with only a very few reviews specifically dealing with electrolytes disturbances and seizures published so far.”

I’ve also learned that certain epilepsy drugs can actually cause hyponatremia (doctor-ese for low sodium) as a side effect — including the one I was on! Another piece of the mystery that is this brain of mine, and something to keep an eye on for the future. Meanwhile, please pass the salt.

and finally, a plug…

A better way to get your electrolytes — without all the sugar and nasty chemicals of a sports drink — is through a supplement like Pure Vitamin Club’s Ultra Salt. It contains all the electrolytes that you need, in all the right proportions, with nothing extra.

Now, if you remember our Book Club session back in December, we had a great talk with Vinnie Tortorich. We talked about exercise, diet, his book Fitness Confidential, and more. What we didn’t get a chance to discuss was his vitamin company, Pure Vitamin Club.

Vinnie is a longtime ultra-distance athlete, and I had a chance to talk to Vinnie about why he started making PVC Ultra Salt, specifically.

“When I looked around, there were only two products on the market that were even close to being a good electrolyte supplement. But they both had excipients, flow agents… all kinds of chemicals that are not only unnecessary for human health, but may actually be bad for you.

I could have replicated what they were doing, minus all the crap, and that would have put us ahead of the game. But I wanted to do one better.

I got together with a couple of scientists to and asked them to study the formulas of the various products out there — why did they use X amount of sodium, for example, or Y amount of potassium — and to find ways to supercharge it.

In the end, I finally said, ‘Go make sweat.’ In other words, I asked them to deconstruct exactly what minerals we lose when we sweat, in what proportions. And that’s what we used to create the Ultra Salt formula.”

I always keep some Ultra Salt handy in case I need it for sweaty endeavors like long hikes, yard work, moving junk to the storage unit, etc. It’s a good adjunct to drinking plenty of water and staying hydrated. In fact, I like Pure Vitamin Club products so much, I’ve decided to become an affiliate. So if you’d like to try some for yourself, be sure to click here first so that Vinnie knows I sent ya.

That’s it for now. Stay salty, my friends!