A small level of dehydration causes an inability to maintain concentration and produces lethargy with dull headaches. The brain is 75% water and needs to be well hydrated to work efficiently.
Angie Jefferson BSc, SRD Nutritionist and accredited sports dietician explains:
The Juice Doctor drinks are based on a hydration study that looked at the different hydrating properties of Sodium Chloride and Potassium Chloride compared to a glucose and water drink. Whilst both Sodium Chloride and Potassium Chloride are salts, too much Sodium Chloride (table salt) is associated with long term health risks such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Potassium Chloride is not associated with these health risks.
Both Sodium and Potassium are essential parts of a healthy diet and are used by our kidneys to regulate the amount of fluids in our bodies.
Many sports drinks use Sodium Chloride to help the body absorb and hang on to the water in them, but while it may be OK for athletes to have extra salt in their diet for many of us we already consume too much table salt.
The Juice Doctor drinks use Potassium Chloride as a hydration booster instead which is a type of salt most of us could do with having a bit more of in our diet.
In the hydration study 8 healthy male subjects were dehydrated by getting them to cycle on an exercise bike in a hot room. They were then given one of four specially formulated drinks which contained water and:-
Drink A – Glucose
Drink B – Sodium Chloride
Drink C – Potassium Chloride
Drink D – All 3 combined
Everyone did the study 4 separate times so that they all had each of the drinks. Over the next 12 hours the amount of the drink retained by the body was measured:-
After 1 hour the hydrating effect of Drinks B,C and D started to become apparent – all three being on average 8% better at hydrating compared to Drink A.
By the end of the study the Sodium Chloride and Potassium Chloride drinks were 23% and 24% better at hydration than Drink A and whilst Drink D gave 28% better hydration this was not significantly better than either Drinks B or C.
So to sum up we don’t use quite as much potassium chloride as in this study (as potassium at that level just does not taste great), but the study did tell us that by adding potassium chloride to The Juice Doctor drinks we were getting the right hydration effects without the potentially bad side effects of table salt.
Study Reference: Maughan RJ, Owen JH, Shireffs SM, Leiper JB (1994)
Post-exercise rehydration in man: effects of electrolyte addition to ingested fluids. European Journal of Applied Physiology 69: 209-215
