Hydration is a big deal when it comes to feeling fabulous and living a vibrant life! In this episode, Zoa shares why hydration is a cornerstone in Functional Wellness and is way more than just guzzling down water. It's about balancing water intake with sodium, minerals, and, believe it or not, movement! Yep, you heard that right—getting your groove on helps keep things flowing in your body. If you're feeling tired or a bit cranky, it might just be your hydration game that needs a little boost. So, grab a drink and let’s chat about how to quench that thirst for wellness together!

Takeaways:

• Hydration is more than just drinking water; it includes minerals and movement too!
• Sodium plays a crucial role in hydration, so don't be afraid to enjoy some salt.
• Movement helps with hydration, so get up, dance a little, and keep fluids flowing!
• Balancing sodium and potassium is key to keeping our cells happy and healthy!
• Drinking water alone isn't enough; you need minerals to help it flow through your body.
• Dehydration can cause fatigue and cranky joints, so let's keep hydrated and rejuvenated!

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Find Zoa:

Zen and Vitality with Zoa (zenandvitality.com)

Intentional Vitality Retreats (intentional-vitality.com)

Music Credit goes to Lemon Music Studio at: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4XWZhZ32YrVV5lvpF7cr1E?si=tnbSklR7SJyPNKiHP4MbHA

Welcome to Sustain youn Vitality, the podcast that gives you a nurturing kick in the ass so you can take action every day to feel better, not older.

Your lifestyle holds the power to change how you feel, and no matter your age or health issues, you are in the driver's seat.

I'm your host, Zoa Connor, Functional Wellness Guide at Zen and Vitality with Zoa and retreat leader at Intentional Vitality Retreats.

I'm here to help you figure out how to lower your stress, increase your energy, put yourself into a healing state, boost your drive and pleasure in life, prevent disease, and feel the best that you ever have with no regrets later.

Let's go.

In my work with clients, we use the seven fundamentals of functional wellness.

One of those fundamentals is hydration.

When I say the word hydration to most of my new clients, they automatically think about water.

Oftentimes they jump in with their opinion that they either drink not enough water all day long or that they are good because they drink a lot of water all day long.

I get to explain to them that hydration is about more than just how much water you drink.

Water is only part of the hydration story.

The other parts are sodium and minerals and movement through the tissues of the body.

So water, when you drink it, comes in through your mouth, goes down your throat, fills up your stomach, goes right from your stomach into your small intestine, where it goes through the small intestinal walls to the bloodstream.

Some of it stays there and will go to the large intestine and help make sure that your poo is smooth and soft and able to come out.

The water that goes into your bloodstream needs to go to the body.

But if you drink a lot of water quickly and that timing depends on you as a individual person, then what happens is your kidneys recognize that you've diluted your blood and they take that water out of the bloodstream and put it into your bladder so that you can pee it out.

So your kidneys have a strong opinion on the amount of water that you should have in your blood.

The way that the body knows to have the blood and the water in it leaving the bloodstream and going to the tissues is because there is a flow out of the capillaries and into the cells, which means then the cells flow back, or the water in the cells flows back out into your lymphatic system.

So while your blood moves around inside of your circulatory system, because your heart pumps the blood through, the corollary to that, the return of the Fluids that leave the bloodstream through your lymphatic system.

And so that fluid flow, your lymphatic flow, there is no mechanical pump like there is for the blood.

There is no lymphatic heart.

Your lymph flow is created by movement.

So when you have whole body movement, you're going to have blood flow that's encouraged, and lymphatic flow that's encouraged.

And the two of these together create fluid flow from the bloodstream, through the cells, out of the cells, and back into the lymphatic system.

And that's why movement is an important part of good hydration.

So if you're sitting in your car or at the desk or in front of a computer or watching kids play their sports, that does not encourage hydration.

Taking a walk does.

Moving through your yoga practice or through your sports activity, or even just wiggling your fingers and toes and taking a little dance while you're in your car.

And that's like a shoulder dance, a little hip dance, a little butt squeeze.

Those all encourage hydration.

Now, in between those two aspects of drinking the water and moving it through the tissues is the mineral component.

Without good minerals in the body, which comes in through your drinks and food, then you might be pushing the water flu.

But there's very little in the way of desire of the fluid to flow through the body.

The desire comes from having the minerals there, and in particular, sodium.

Now, sodium is a component of salt.

And in many of the things that you can read online or hear from your doctors, salt is considered bad.

Something to avoid.

My opinion is that salt is actually crucial for life, crucial for supporting hydration, crucial for maintaining a high enough blood pressure, crucial for supporting the function of your adrenal glands, whose job is to keep you alive.

So sodium and the other minerals that your body needs have a good relationship.

Sodium is like the life of the party.

All the other minerals will follow sodium through the body.

So if you have plain water, no salt on purpose, trying to keep it low, then there's no encouragement of the minerals and the fluids to flow actually into the cells and out of the cells.

So you might get blood flow, you might get fluids leaving the bloodstream, getting into lymphatic spaces between the cells, but they actually have to get into the cells and back out.

That flow is determined by sodium and potassium.

Sodium likes to live outside the cells, but it needs electrically to go in.

Potassium likes to live inside the cells, and electrically it's going to get pushed out when the sodium goes in.

But then they want to swap places, because that's their happy place, their resident homes.

So when you have sodium levels in the body that are too high, then you have a lot of pressure on the outside of the cells, squishing them.

They don't like that.

When you have not enough sodium in the body compared to potassium, then the cells are almost trying to blow up and expand.

And if that happens too intensely, then the cells will actually burst and die.

We don't like cells to die.

That means you have a lot of cleanup to do.

It means that that organ, wherever that cell was, doesn't work very well.

So we want to maintain a good balance of sodium and potassium and we want to have all the rest of the minerals present to help the body function.

So hydration is water plus minerals plus sodium plus movement.

And if you're missing any of those components, you will be dehydrated, you are likely to be tired, have a little brain fog, have some swelling, have some cranky joints.

There's all kinds of symptoms that are associated with dehydration and sometimes they are symptoms because the sodium is too high and you're not getting enough potassium.

So more vegetables for you.

Sometimes it's the other way around.

Your diet is so clean that you really minimize sodium and you have to purposely add it back in sometimes.

The problem is, is that you've got plenty of minerals but not enough actual fluid flow.

And you can tell this because if you do a blood test and you've got high calcium and high cholesterol and high red blood cell data, you're likely dehydrated and it's a fairly easy thing to fix.

We work on improving the quality of your water, the amount of your water, the mineral content of your water, and your movement patterns throughout the day.

So hydration is a multi pronged issue and it's only one part of the seven fundamentals of functional wellness that we can use to help you feel better, not older.

I would love to help you with your hydration.

Just let me know how I can help.

Schedule a new client, consult or check out many of the articles on my website.

If the Sustain your Vitality podcast is helping you understand what you need to feel fabulous in every way with the least amount of effort, please share the show with someone who also needs it.

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The Sustain your Vitality podcast is a gift from Zen and Vitality with Zoa LLC and Intentional Vitality Retreats based in the state of Maryland, usa.

All the podcast things, planning, recording, editing, producing have all been done by me.

Zoa Connor, Ph.D.

even though you can call me Dr.

I'm not a medical professional and your safety is your responsibility.

By listening to this podcast and understanding that any movement, nutrition, lifestyle or health protocols discussed you are agreeing to take full responsibility for your actions.

Zen and Vitality with Zoa are not responsible for any injuries or issues that may occur.

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical, wellness, nutrition, lifestyle or movement and fitness advice.

Always practice any fitness or movement related activities in a safe environment.

I make no claims about the effectiveness of the techniques or protocols discussed for you or any specific results that you may achieve.

I recommend you consult with your healthcare professional before changing your diet, exercise routine or healthcare plan.

Zenin, Vitality with Zoa and the guests of this podcast are not liable for any injuries or health problems that may arise from following the information presented.