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Nie daj sobie wcisnąć elektrolitów — Transcript

by Uwaga! Naukowy Bełkot · 3,319 words · 526 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Good morning. Imagine there is a market
0:03in Poland trying to sell people
0:05something they don't need. They have an
0:10excess of it, and an excess of this
0:12something can result in negative health
0:14effects—health problems, to put it
0:15bluntly. And what’s more, this
0:19isn’t something happening in the dark
0:21corners of the internet or on
0:22suspicious websites. No, this is
0:25something that is all over radio and TV
0:28commercials. Something I truly realized
0:35when my phone cable broke in the car
0:38and I started listening to the radio
0:40more, because listen, the amount of
0:42electrolytes they are trying to sell us
0:45—very specialized, sugar-free, for
0:47men, women, the elderly—it defies
0:49human understanding, especially since
0:51most of us, the overwhelming majority,
1:00simply don't need them. And that is
1:05what today’s video will be about,
1:07which is half-scientific,
1:08half-commentary, because I believe this
1:10is a harmful trend and the more people
1:12realize that we are being pushed into
1:14buying something we don't need and that
1:17could harm us, the better. So, one step
1:22at a time, without unnecessary emotions
1:25. But before we get to the point, a few
1:39words about the partner of this channel
1:41and the sponsor of this episode, which
1:43is Trade Republic bank. Recording from
1:45home. I’ve caught a bit of a cold,
1:47look. So, a partnership with Trade
1:50Republic, because it turned out that
1:52this bank's offer suits me enough that
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1:57bank whose services I use on a daily
1:59basis. I’m not just talking about
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2:10know, digital money, but cash still
2:13comes in handy. For withdrawals over
2:16200 PLN, Trade Republic also charges no
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2:22save. I use both the Saveback option,
2:26thanks to which I can get 1%of my
2:28spending back in ETFs up to 40 PLN per
2:30month, and the Roundup option, which
2:32rounds up the spent amount to the
2:34nearest whole zloty and invests the
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2:51it just works flawlessly, and every
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2:55much money has been invested in
2:57specific financial instruments. Besides
3:01that, I also have a recurring monthly
3:03transfer set up that invests a specific
3:05amount into what I’ve chosen, with
3:07the thought of a time when I might want
3:09to stop working but still want to have
3:11something to live on. In general, there
3:13is more to it. Check out the Trade
3:15Republic offer. The easiest way to do
3:17this is by scanning the QR code you see
3:19on your screen right now. I'm heading
3:22back—or rather, in the video, I'm
3:24getting back to the topic, but actually
3:27I'm heading home to recover quickly and
3:29film more videos. Let's start with what
3:36electrolytes actually are. As a PhD in
3:42chemistry, I have to say they are
3:44simply substances that, when dissolved
3:46in a solvent, usually water, or when
3:49melted, will conduct electricity
3:51because they dissociate into ions and
3:53carry the current. However, in the
3:59sense that I will be using the term
4:01today, we are talking about
4:02electrolytes from a dietary perspective
4:04. These are ions crucial for our body's
4:09functioning—chemical entities with a
4:12charge—such as sodium, potassium,
4:14chloride, and magnesium ions. I will
4:25mainly focus here on sodium and
4:27chlorine, essentially sodium chloride
4:29or table salt, as this is the most
4:31pressing issue and the combination of
4:33electrolytes we lose the most of
4:35through sweat. That topic will come up
4:43in a moment. So, by electrolytes, I
4:47mean those essential for human
4:49functioning, specifically, but not
4:51exclusively, sodium chloride. First, we
4:55need to answer one fundamental question
4:57. Why are these electrolytes even sold
5:00to us? What role do they play, at least
5:03according to the advertisements? The
5:06answer here is simple: these
5:07electrolytes are supposed to help us
5:09hydrate our bodies. We all know how
5:11important hydration is, that you need
5:13to drink eight glasses of water a day,
5:15right? Well, you don't actually need to
5:16drink eight glasses of water a day.
5:18That isn't supported by any scientific
5:20research. As an aside, I made a video
5:22about that years ago. Generally, you
5:24should drink as much as you feel like,
5:26excluding the elderly, who are
5:28generally—but you'll hear about all
5:30of that here. The point is that
5:34electrolytes are supposed to help us
5:36hydrate because our body is largely
5:37made of water. When that water is
5:42lacking, we can face various issues
5:44with healthy functioning. A headache is
5:49actually the least of our worries. The
5:54question is, do electrolyte solutions
5:56provide better hydration? That is the
5:59first key question. Do they truly
6:01fulfill those promises? Well, generally
6:06yes, but sometimes no. There is a large
6:11study that was conducted by the
6:13European Hydration Institute. It is a
6:16non-profit foundation that deals
6:17specifically with the issue of human
6:19hydration. And they examined how
6:23different types of solutions hydrate us
6:25. The metric they were measuring here
6:29was water retention. Retention, which
6:32is how much water remains in our body.
6:36The point was that people consumed a
6:38specific amount, a volume of fluids,
6:40and researchers measured how much they
6:42urinated. And based on that, it was
6:47possible to assess how much of that
6:49consumed fluid, that drunk water or
6:51substance, remained in the body. The
6:59idea behind adding salt, or sugars—
7:01mainly glucose—to plain water is that
7:04our body's physiology is such that the
7:06transport of sodium and glucose from,
7:08for example, the intestines and stomach
7:11into our body often makes us absorb
7:13water more efficiently; essentially,
7:15water follows these chemical entities.
7:23Of course, concentration issues also
7:25come into play here. We have hypotonic
7:29solutions, where the concentration of
7:31these salts is lower than in the body.
7:34Isotonic, roughly the same, and
7:36hypertonic. Here, the movement of ions
7:38and the movement of water will be
7:40different. Let's put that aside for now
7:43, because we are really interested in
7:45the results of these studies. Because
7:48we buy a ready-made product. We don't
7:50have to prepare it, so to speak, or
7:52rather, we have a clear recipe for
7:55preparing it: so many capsules or
7:57tablets per so many milliliters of
7:59water. And it turned out that, indeed,
8:03these types of solutions containing
8:05salt and glucose hydrated better and
8:07had higher water retention than plain
8:09water. Interestingly, milk also
8:13performed well, but the solutions that
8:18did so well were specific solutions.
8:25These were so-called ORSs, oral
8:27rehydration solutions. I think that’s
8:35how you can translate it. And these are
8:37things used in medicine. For people who
8:39are dehydrated as a result of diarrhea
8:41or vomiting. These are specially
8:43prepared compositions. Such sports
8:46electrolytes performed no better than
8:48water. And this is relatively important
8:51. In the sense that there are no clear
8:55studies showing that they universally
8:57hydrate better in a situation where we
8:59are talking about people who are not
9:01dehydrated. This is quite important in
9:05this matter. Here, these people were
9:08not dehydrated, because there are other
9:11studies—a bit more recent, but also
9:13on a smaller group of subjects, I
9:15believe 19 men were included—in which
9:17such a sports electrolyte solution did
9:19perform better than plain water in
9:21terms of hydration, but there we were
9:23dealing with people who were dehydrated
9:25after exercise, so that's a completely
9:28different story. If someone is
9:31dehydrated from exercise or simply
9:33dehydrated, then such an electrolyte
9:35solution might work better than water.
9:38However, for people who are functioning
9:40in their daily lives, there are no
9:41clear indications for that. And there
9:43is one more caveat that needs to be
9:45made here. Specifically, this study on
9:4919 men was sponsored by the Coca-Cola
9:51Company, someone who produces, among
9:53other things, such sports drinks with
9:56electrolytes. So we are dealing here
10:01with certain conflicts of interest.
10:03Literature reviews indeed show that the
10:05addition of glucose, the addition of
10:07sugars at the level of 4–9%, helps
10:12with hydration, but again, I emphasize,
10:15post-exercise. For ordinary people, the
10:18benefits of drinking electrolytes
10:20instead of water are, well, there are
10:26no real benefits if we take into
10:28account only hydration. Unless they are
10:32suffering from diarrhea or vomiting,
10:34but that is a different matter. And
10:38here is an important note, this is a
10:40fairly universal truth. Namely, elderly
10:44people, who according to one review are
10:46on average 24%of the time dehydrated to
10:52some degree—by elderly, we mean 65
10:55plus. So, when it comes to replenishing
10:57this water deficit, they don't gain
10:59much at all if they drink electrolytes
11:01at the expense of regular water. And
11:04you can't assume that these are people
11:06who, just because they turned 65 and
11:08retired, automatically get dehydrated.
11:11No, it doesn't work like that. Children
11:14not only don't benefit, but drinking
11:16beverages with added sugar can
11:18negatively affect their nutritional
11:20choices, for example. Later, it may
11:23affect how their bodies function.
11:28Pregnant women also do not need, do not
11:31need additional hydration here. And I
11:37would even say that using electrolytes
11:39for some people can be problematic, can
11:42be harmful in terms of health. And I
11:46don't just mean people who have kidney
11:48disease, for example, chronic kidney
11:50failure. There, indeed, such a sudden
11:54addition of salt can be unfavorable.
11:59However, it is very important to
12:01address the topic of hypertension,
12:03because we have a large, a large body
12:05of evidence. A body of evidence that
12:11sodium chloride consumption correlates
12:13—no, not just correlates, but there
12:15is a causal relationship between the
12:17amount of salt in the diet and how high
12:20the blood pressure symptoms are, that
12:22is, how severe the hypertension is. It
12:25is specifically about the fact that
12:26large population studies show that
12:28limiting the consumption of table salt,
12:30sodium chloride, causes both systolic
12:32and diastolic blood pressure in people
12:34with hypertension to decrease. So it
12:36can be said that there is a causal
12:38relationship here. And electrolytes
12:41very often provide us with exactly that
12:43sodium chloride. Sodium chloride, which
12:47is basically hard to be deficient in
12:49within the population. What do I mean?
12:56I mean that on average, according to
12:58the WHO, every person consumes 4.3
13:00grams of sodium per day, which
13:03corresponds to eating 11 grams of table
13:05salt. In Poland, these studies were
13:10also conducted. This is a relatively
13:13recent study published in '26, covering
13:15'24, and it's quite interestingly
13:18conducted; it used survey data to
13:20determine what Poles spend their money
13:22on—food, among other things—and
13:24knowing the average salt content in
13:26those food types, they could estimate
13:29the average salt intake of Poles, with
13:31one important caveat: it only accounts
13:33for home consumption. So, if they eat
13:37anything outside the home, for instance
13:39in restaurants, that’s an additional
13:41amount. In Poland, this calculated
13:44sodium consumption is at a level of
13:473.27 grams per day. The trend is
13:49generally downward, so that’s a plus.
13:53However, it still translates to 8.3
13:55grams of table salt every single day.
13:59Is that a lot or a little in Poland?
14:02Because these numbers only make sense
14:04within a certain context. It’s a lot
14:11—I’d even say way too much—
14:13because the World Health Organization
14:15recommends not consuming more than 5
14:17grams of table salt per day, which is
14:19essentially about 2 grams of sodium
14:21ions. So, both globally and nationally,
14:28we are way over, and that is why I said
14:30that, essentially, it doesn't happen
14:33that people have a deficiency of sodium
14:35ions, and therefore there is no
14:40justification for using electrolytes.
14:45If you work out, if you go for a run—
14:47I don't know—of 5 or even 10 km, if
14:49you go to the gym for an hour or an
14:51hour and a half, these are not
14:53situations, even if you sweat profusely
14:56, where using electrolytes to replenish
14:58a sodium deficit would be justified.
15:04Because, as I said, sodium chloride is
15:06the main ingredient in electrolytes
15:08that is lost in sweat, that leaves our
15:11bodies through sweat, for a simple
15:13reason: we already have too much sodium
15:15, and this sodium is not beneficial for
15:18us. I’ll say even more. In 2023,
15:23according to World Health Organization
15:25estimates, 1.7 million people died due
15:28to excessive sodium consumption, an
15:30excessive amount of sodium in their
15:32diet. So, as I mentioned, trying to
15:39sell electrolytes to everyone as a
15:41universal way to hydrate—in summer or
15:43not, regardless of gender or age—is
15:45selling something that doesn't
15:47necessarily work for people who don't
15:49need it, because they already have an
15:51excess of those ingredients. They have
15:56a free alternative in the form of water
15:58, which works just as well in most or
16:00many cases, as research shows. Not any
16:03worse. And an excess of what is being
16:07sold can actually harm us. So,
16:10electrolytes don't make sense, right?
16:17You probably think that knowing all
16:18this, and having known it for some time
16:21before I started preparing for this
16:22video, I would never touch these
16:24electrolytes, right? Isotonic drinks.
16:28Oh, give it a rest. And that’s
16:31exactly where it turns out Dawid is a
16:33hypocrite, but not necessarily, not
16:36necessarily. It’s all because cycling
16:41has been a very big part of my life
16:43lately. Yes, cycling changes everything
16:51. This year, I rode 200 km on a bike
16:54for the first time. For the first time,
16:56I had a route with 3,000 meters of
16:57elevation gain. I rode the Tour de
16:59Pologne for amateurs. In general,
17:02across various bikes—commuting to
17:05work, on trainers—at this point,
17:07I’ve logged over 6,000 km, and I
17:09often have a bike workout or a ride
17:12that lasts 3 or 4 hours. In this case,
17:21we're entering the territory of
17:22long-distance physical activity that is
17:25meant to train capacity and endurance,
17:27which involves heavy sweating—
17:28something you don’t feel on a bike
17:30because you’re cutting through the
17:32wind, which often aids evaporation.
17:40That’s where using electrolytes and
17:42isotonic sports drinks becomes more
17:44justified. Of course, again, it’s not
17:49universal because it will depend on the
17:51temperature, your sweat rate, how much
17:53sodium is normally in your sweat, how
17:55intense the effort is, and the humidity
17:58. Even the sun exposure, how long—how
18:02long the effort lasts, I probably
18:05already mentioned that. In general,
18:08there are a multitude of factors that
18:10influence how much you should consume.
18:14You should certainly not aim to replace
18:16one liter of sweat with one liter of
18:18drink. Studies show that the difference
18:23is minimal, and very often consuming,
18:26for example, water or too large a
18:28quantity of hypotonic solutions—where
18:30the concentration of ions and glucose
18:32is lower than in the body—can lead to
18:34the opposite situation. Namely, we will
18:41get rid of sodium this way, because the
18:43ions will move from where there is a
18:45lot of it. These are the body's cells
18:50to the fluid that is in the intestines,
18:52let's say. And in this way, we can lead
18:55to that rare situation where someone on
18:57a Western diet will have too little
18:59sodium in their body, leading to
19:01hyponatremia. Actually, here’s a fun
19:05fact, or rather two fun facts, since
19:08we’ve collectively put cycling on the
19:10table: paradoxically, in real-world
19:12studies (and a meta-analysis of 28
19:14scientific studies shows this), the
19:17best hydration in these situations
19:19comes not from isotonic solutions, but
19:21from slightly hypotonic ones, meaning
19:24those that have slightly less less
19:30electrolytes, less glucose, and less
19:32sugar than what’s in the body’s
19:34cells. For this reason, they perform
19:39the best when it comes to hydration.
19:42That’s one fun fact. Listen, the
19:45second fun fact I have to share, which
19:50is kind of mind-blowing, is that there
19:52is a limit to how much you can
19:54replenish fluid deficits. And
19:59professional road cycling is a sport
20:02where situations can arise where it's
20:04impossible to replenish fluids, where
20:06dehydration during a stage is simply
20:08inevitable—not extreme, of course.
20:13Athletes, and cross-sectional studies
20:16throughout a race show this too. They
20:19make up for those deficits after the
20:21stages, so it’s not that they stay
20:23dehydrated, but on a hot, fast stage,
20:25the rate of water loss through sweat
20:27can be 2.5 liters per hour. However,
20:29our bodies are built in such a way that
20:32they cannot replenish this faster than
20:34a liter to 1.2 liters per hour through
20:36fluids. You can drink more, but the
20:39excess will simply pass right through
20:41us physically. So, cycling is a sport
20:46where long exertion is often linked to
20:48inevitable weight loss due to water
20:50loss, and on hot days for pros, it can
20:53reach several kilograms—meaning two,
20:55three, or for heavier riders, even four
20:58kilograms. So, um, I use electrolytes,
21:04but I don't consider that to make me a
21:07hypocrite. I use them because in that
21:11specific aspect, they make sense. So,
21:15I’m leaning toward saying that it
21:17isn't a universal scam; that is,
21:19selling electrolytes isn't a fraud.
21:22It's not like someone is doing
21:24something harmful. However, it is
21:27problematic and potentially harmful to
21:30try to sell these electrolytes to
21:32everyone. To everyone, because it won't
21:38work for most people, for many people.
21:41It could potentially expose them to
21:43losses, not only financial but also
21:45health consequences. And on top of that
21:49, it gives a false sense that if you
21:51drink a glass of electrolytes, you've
21:53done everything necessary. Meanwhile,
21:57in many situations, a few glasses of
22:00plain water or milk—even lactose-free
22:02—would work much better. So I stand
22:06by that. Those ubiquitous ads, which,
22:10um, were hard to—as it turned out, I
22:12found it hard that summer—to avoid,
22:14are an attempt to sell people something
22:17that won't necessarily work for them,
22:19something the vast majority don't need
22:21and something that in excess can harm
22:28them, and they usually already have an
22:30excess of what might prove harmful in
22:31the long run. If you aren't doing such
22:37prolonged—more than two hours, let's
22:40say, that’s a safe threshold for
22:42exertion—then drinking water is
22:44probably enough, even if you exercise.
22:48After that point, the use of
22:50electrolytes is much more justified.
22:53Alright, that's it. I think I’ve said
22:58everything, since this is an unscripted
23:00episode, so I was going a bit based on
23:03spontaneous notes. If not, you probably
23:07saw some retakes or corrections in this
23:09video. And if so, I hope you learned
23:13something interesting and maybe even
23:15something practical. That's it. Thank
23:20you for listening. I’d like to
23:22especially thank those who support
23:23Naukowy Bełkot on Patronite, because
23:25thanks to you, we can create these
23:27types of videos at our own pace and in
23:29our own style, without worrying about
23:31algorithms or the fact that we’re
23:33racing against the increasingly
23:35ubiquitous AI slop, about which I’ll
23:37soon be making a similar video. So,
23:40what now? I’m taking the bike down
23:42and going for a ride, wearing a helmet,
23:44of course, because we always wear
23:46helmets. See you later, talk to you
23:49soon. And since you’re still here,
23:57you should know that outside of myself,
23:59a whole lot of people work and function
24:01at Naukowy Bełkot to make sure these
24:03videos hold together, make sense, and
24:05actually look good. This is Adam, who
24:08edits the videos and, as you can see,
24:10also puts bikes on the table. Konrad
24:13Pomorski has been helping him edit
24:15these films. Patrycja Jakub Golszewska,
24:18Anna Mleczku, and Monika Chylińska are
24:20responsible for the research, while for
24:22all the visuals—of which there are
24:24fewer in the comments, though the
24:25thumbnail is also important. Ewelina
24:27Podsiadła; this team is able to work
24:30precisely thanks to the support of our
24:32patrons. Thank you, and also thank you
24:34for watching these videos, sharing them
24:37, and commenting, so take care and once
24:39again, see you later, talk to you soon
24:41—right, Adam?
24:42Yeah.

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