Good hydration is one of the most important things for wellbeing. It can have a huge effect on how you feel physically, on how alert you feel mentally, and even your emotions. As you get dehydrated, you’ll experience headaches, muscle aches, lack of focus, mental fog and irritability. If you want to perform at your highest level at work, recover quickly from a session in the gym or even make your skin look a little fuller, then you need to make sure you’re thinking about hydration.
Today we’re taking a look at three ways to get hydrated, so you’re always feeling your best.
Drinking Water
Most of the time a glass or a bottle of water is the most convenient way to get hydrated. Unfortunately, it’s not always the best way to get the job done. Water might quench your immediate feeling of thirst, but it doesn’t replace everything your body loses when it gets dehydrated.
As well as water, you also lose the salts dissolved in your body’s water supplies – your electrolytes. These are used for lots of vital jobs by your body including maintaining a regular heart beat! They’re also used to balance the fluid level in your cells – so if you’re dehydrated and lacking in electrolytes, rehydrating is harder and less efficient.
Isotonic Sports Drinks
Whether you’ve been hitting the gym, practicing for a marathon, or it’s simply a hot day, you might reach for an isotonic sports drink as a better rehydration solution than water.
In the context of drinks, isotonic is used to indicate that the product contains the same concentrations of salts as the cells of the human body, meaning you can replenish your electrolytes at the same time you top up on fluids, and rehydrate more quickly and efficiently.
These drinks do work better than water, but they do have some drawbacks: often, they contain high levels of glucose and flavourings, which might not be ideal for you if you’re trying to control your weight. They’re also heavy – if you’re carrying your gym bag with you on the commute then a bottle or two of sports rehydration drinks will weigh you down!
Rehydration Tablets and Powders
Another solution – and potentially the best one for you, are specifically formulated rehydration tablets and sachets. These contain all the salts you need to top up your electrolytes, and dissolve quickly in water, meaning you can rehydrate in the possible way wherever you are, without carrying heavy bottles around with you.
Simply keep your gym bag stocked with a product like ORS rehydration tablets and you’ll be ready to go!