I’ve read a bunch of posts on the water cure. I haven’t read them all because there are just too many to wade through, but I wanted to share what information I have about adding salt to your water... what it does and does not do. I’m not a medical professional, this is just some extra information from mucho experience with dehydration.

A little background: I spent a portion of my life living in South America establishing health programs. One of the major health concerns there and in many third world areas of the world is dehydration. We used an ORT (Oral Rehydration Therapy) to help severely dehydrated children and adults. The basic recipe for ORT is 1 tsp salt mixed with 8 tsps sugar in a liter of drinking water. Often we used molasses instead of sugar because it has a higher potassium content than white sugar. This solution has saved literally millions of lives around the world and is a common treatment among health professionals who work with severe dehydration in remote areas of the world. It has saved my life on more than one occasion when I was severely dehydrated and far from any medical help.

Now, I always have to know the science behind the “cure” before I’ll even touch it.(My dad is a scientist, so it must be in the blood.) I’m sure that most of you don’t suffer from severe diarrhea like the people I worked with, but when we workout we sweat a lot. This can cause us to lose lost fluids and essential salts. An ORT can help us replace those lost fluids and salts. The quick sciencey explanation is:

1. Sodium can quickly enter into the cells of the gut and salt speeds the absorption of glucose.

2. Glucose (sugar that is broken down) speeds the absorption of water.

3. When taken together, glucose and sodium bond together in the small intestines. Combined, these two little guys are the most effective way to replenish your fluids and your essential salts.

So, if you had to picture this all going on inside of you, you’d see a sodium coupling up with a glucose inside your small intestine. The sodium can easily penetrate the gut, and it drags the glucose with it, since they are now attached, and the glucose drags the water behind it, so now you have water speeding through your system and rehydrating you.

If you’re still not convinced that you need sugar with your salt, ask yourself the age-old question: Why can’t humans live off of salt water? Well, kidneys make urine. Urine has to be less salty than salt water. That means you have to urinate more water than you drink. When you do this, you suffer from dehydration.

This is probably why people might notice less water retention when they drink salt water. They might be drinking lots of water, but it isn’t being absorbed effectively because the salt is dragging it back out to make urine. So, it means that you just have to make sure that you are drinking as much water as absolutely possible in order to keep yourself hydrated.

So, I guess in the end my post is just a helpful word of caution. I’m really not trying to shut down the “water cure”. If this is what you chose to do, buen provecho. We each know our bodies and can make the decisions that will work best for them. This is just an attempt to explain the science behind the salt and give you one more option.

If you choose to add salt to your water, please be very careful and make sure that you don’t use very much, and make sure that you drink as much water as possible to ensure that you stay hydrated.

...or just give your kidneys a break and add some sugar to your salt solution.

...or just drink lots and lots of pure water.

We are so lucky to just go to the fridge or go to the store and drink as much water as we want. How many people in this world are so lucky? In South America, drinking a glass of clean water was a twelve-step process (which often involved a strainer!). So, drink up!

...and eat a banana too!! (Don't worry, I'll save the great potassium lecture for another post.)

Hang in there and happy tapping.


Steph