What causes electrolyte imbalance
I’ve come to learn a lot about what causes electrolyte imbalance during my years of using electrolytes as a physical athlete. Electrolytes are the minerals that are energized in water to help you maintain proper heart rhythm, brain function, and muscle contraction.
These are essentially your lifeline for living a healthier lifestyle. An electrolyte imbalance happens when you don’t have the right levels of minerals to support your body. I will share more about these minerals below, if you want to continue reading to learn more about what causes electrolyte imbalance, scroll down.
- Elm & Rye
- My Adventures to Life Watermelon Candy Electrolytes Powder
- LMNT Zero-Sugar Electrolytes
- Santa Cruz Paleo Real Salt Electrolytes Powder
- Zeal Naturals Electrolyte Powder Recovery Drink
The electrolytes that your body needs to maintain proper functions are:
- Sodium
- Potassium
- Calcium
- Chloride
- Magnesium
- Phosphate
- Bicarbonate
These blend together with water to create the perfect balance of energy, mind power, and muscle use throughout your lifetime, but what happens when you have an electrolyte imbalance?
An electrolyte imbalance means that your body isn’t functioning properly and has few minerals to support the normal functions of the heart, muscles, and mind. An imbalance may occur due to health reasons, excessive physical exercise, or an illness.
The following things are some of what causes electrolyte imbalance, but there could be other reasons why your electrolytes are off:
- Malnutrition
- Kidney disease
- Cancer drugs
- Heart disease
- Some medications
- Drinking too much water
- Diarrhea
- Diabetes
- Some physical activities
When it comes to having an electrolyte imbalance due to physical activities, this usually occurs when you’ve exerted yourself for an hour or more doing cardio, heavy weight lifting, or similar exercise. This will result in you sweating profusely which is how the body displaces electrolytes and thus requires an increased need in having an electrolyte drink.
I tend to use electrolyte drinks because I work out at the gym regularly and do intense cardio workouts at home. Having an electrolyte powder handy to mix into my bottled water makes life so much easier, it is a proactive measure to ensure my health or physical activity habits don’t cause me an electrolyte imbalance.
Your liver and kidneys work to move the water around in your body so that you don’t end up with too much fluid in the pockets that are found around your cells. Since some health conditions make the liver and kidneys malfunction, it causes you to have an electrolyte imbalance.
This is why kidney disease and heart disease can wreak havoc on your body. These problems are often started by poor diet and lifestyle habits that are easier to fix than a health condition that messes up the equilibrium of your inner body workings. Thankfully there are electrolytes on the market, which I’ve shared some of that I love using below, to help you correct the electrolyte imbalance regardless of the cause.
I have my favorite electrolyte drinks listed below; however, you can make electrolyte drinks at home using this simple measurement of 4 cups of water, ¼ or ½ teaspoon of sea salt, and a spritz of freshly squeezed lemon or orange juice. Shake up these ingredients and have an electrolyte drink that’s very budget friendly for anyone.
You can get an electrolyte panel done if you’re in the hospital or visiting your doctor. This will be the best way to determine if you’re experiencing an electrolyte imbalance. This process is having the lab in the hospital or at your doctor’s office draw blood and send it off to be evaluated. The signs that I had for electrolyte imbalance were dizziness, lethargy, and irritability.
With that being said, other signs that may indicate that you have an electrolyte imbalance include; confusion, abnormal heart rate, and shock. If you eat a low sodium diet, chances are that you’ll struggle with electrolyte imbalance from time to time.
When you have the best electrolyte drinks on hand to offset this imbalance, as I do, then you’re more than capable of offsetting this imbalance or maintaining proper levels throughout the day to avoid those dips in electrolytes that can be caused by poor diet, disease, or other conditions that create issues with electrolytes being properly stored in your body.
Now that you know more about what causes electrolyte imbalance and what I do to help with this process, I wanted to share more details about the best electrolyte drinks on the market today. Please read about each of my favorite options below and select one that sounds delicious to you!
Elm & Rye
Elm & Rye electrolytes include b vitamins, potassium, and vitamin C to help balance your electrolytes out. They offer a gummy, capsule, or powder form of their lemon electrolyte so that anyone can use this regardless of their lifestyle.
My Adventures to Life Watermelon Candy Electrolytes Powder
My Adventures to Life created this watermelon candy flavored electrolyte powder after trying other options without success. She simply didn’t like the flavor of the electrolytes on the market, so she developed this sugar free option for those who want to taste candy when fixing their electrolyte imbalance.
LMNT Zero-Sugar Electrolytes
LMNT zero-sugar single pack electrolytes and pitcher size packages are a great option for anyone who drinks electrolytes regularly. This brand does offer multiple flavors so you’re bound to find one flavor that you’ll enjoy as a means to replenish your electrolytes.
Santa Cruz Paleo Real Salt Electrolytes Powder
This powder is paleo friendly and uses Real Salt in the ingredients in their powder so you can fix an electrolyte imbalance rather quickly. The hundreds of users on Amazon seem to enjoy this option and have given it an overall 4.6 star rating.
Zeal Naturals Electrolyte Powder Recovery Drink
The last option I’m sharing on this list of electrolyte powders that I’ve used in my life is this recovery drink from Zeal Naturals. They include BCAAs, and B vitamins along with Real Slat to ensure you’re getting all of the minerals needed to handle an electrolyte imbalance.
I am so glad you read a bit more about what causes electrolyte imbalance, what the symptoms are, and how you can correct this with electrolyte powders. Enjoy maintaining proper hydration now that you know more about how to be proactive with signs of electrolyte imbalance.