The truth about electrolytes: Why more isn’t always the answer

Hydration isn't just how much you drink — it's whether that water reaches your cells. Electrolytes are what make that happen. These essential minerals play a fundamental role in delivering deep, cellular hydration that we rely on to perform at our best.

With misconceptions and backlash around the benefits of electrolytes rising in the UK, Dr Jenna Macciochi is on hand with expert insights on what electrolytes actually do, who genuinely benefits from them, and how to use them purposefully. 

After all, hydration is real physiology and so much more nuanced than marketing has made it seem.

What are electrolytes, and why do they matter?

Electrolytes are charged minerals that help regulate where water goes, keep nerves firing and support normal muscle function. We've always taken them in through a mineral-rich diet with whole foods, spring water, leafy greens, and coconut, all known sources of electrolytes.

They matter because water does not simply move freely where it is needed. Minerals such as sodium and magnesium help regulate where fluid goes, how it is retained, and how cells function.

“Hydration is often reduced to a simple equation: drink more water. But water balance is regulated by a complex interaction between minerals, hormones, kidneys, thermoregulation, nervous system signalling, and cellular transport mechanisms,” Dr Jenna Macciochi.

When do we need electrolyte support?

Everyday life steadily draws on your electrolyte stores, and modern diets don't always replace what's lost. Electrolyte support, therefore, becomes especially valuable when demand climbs. The following are all situations where intelligent, electrolyte hydration support may be useful:

+ Exercise and recovery

+ Heat exposure and sauna use

+ Travel and flying

+ Busy mornings and fasting windows

+ Perimenopause and hormonal fluctuations

+ Low appetite or poor fluid intake

+ Long workdays requiring cognitive focus

+ Post-illness recovery

+ Supporting hydration during demanding schedules

How can women benefit from electrolyte support?

Women regulate hydration differently from men. They generally have lower total body water than men due to differences in body composition, creating a smaller fluid reserve and potentially greater sensitivity to relatively small shifts in hydration status.

Sex hormones also directly influence fluid balance, thirst signalling, sodium handling, and temperature regulation.Across the menstrual cycle, hydration physiology changes dynamically meaning that the way women approach to electrolyte support may vary across their life span. Let’s dive into this in more detail:

The menstrual cycle: 

Oestrogen lowers the threshold for thirst and vasopressin release, the anti-diuretic hormone that tells your kidneys to hold onto water. It prevents dehydration by concentrating your urine and reducing fluid loss, meaning you may feel the urge to drink before becoming as dehydrated as you would at other times in the cycle. The combination of lower core body temperature (compared with the luteal phase) and more efficient fluid regulation can make exercise in the heat feel slightly easier.

During the luteal phase, progesterone can oppose aldosterone, modestly increasing sodium losses in some women. Progesterone also raises core body temperature, increasing fluid requirements and placing greater demands on thermoregulation, particularly during exercise or in hot environments.

Pregnancy:  

Pregnancy places greater demands on fluid and electrolyte regulation as blood volume expands by around 40–50% to support the growing baby and placenta. Hormonal changes lower the threshold for thirst and vasopressin release, encouraging earlier water conservation, while increased kidney filtration can alter fluid and sodium handling. Together, these adaptations mean hydration needs are higher throughout pregnancy, making adequate fluid and electrolyte intake particularly important. 

We always suggest speaking with your doctor, midwife, or healthcare provider before introducing any new supplement during pregnancy, such as an electrolyte, as they know your personal health history and can guide you safely. If you’d like, we can provide product information for you to share with your practitioner.

Perimenopause: 

During perimenopause, the body’s regulation of thirst and fluid balance can change. Hormonal changes during perimenopause may also influence fluid regulation, although research is still emerging. Research suggests thirst perception and fluid regulation may become less sensitive over time, which may partly explain why many women describe feeling “harder to hydrate” during midlife, particularly during exercise, illness or hot weather. While symptoms such as fatigue, headaches and reduced exercise tolerance have many possible causes, suboptimal hydration and electrolyte balance can sometimes contribute.

Do you need electrolytes every day? Mythbusting the misconceptions 

While electrolyte support can make a meaningful difference to both men and women, there’s a growing debate about how often electrolyte support is needed. To that, we say, some criticism of the electrolyte category is justified.

Many electrolyte products now contain extraordinarily high sodium levels, sometimes more than 1 gram per serving.

Sodium is essential. It helps regulate fluid balance across cell membranes, supports nerve signalling, and enables water transport into cells.

But context matters.

If you are losing large amounts of fluid through prolonged sweating, heat exposure, exercise, travel, illness, or sauna use, sodium replenishment can be useful. But for the average person sitting at a desk all day, adding gram after gram may not be intelligent hydration.

Modern diets are also often already high in sodium and low in balancing minerals like potassium. And a high sodium intake is associated with increased cardiovascular risk, particularly in salt-sensitive individuals.

Why True Hydration was crafted differently.

True Hydration wasn't designed to be another high-dose electrolyte product. It’s intentionally formulated to work with physiology, not overwhelm it.

Rather than megadosing sodium, it contains a more balanced level designed to support fluid transport and cellular function without aggressively loading the system. 

Recognising that hydration is not just about sodium, it also uses bioavailable forms of magnesium - involved in hundreds of enzymatic reactions linked to neuromuscular function, energy metabolism, sleep, mood, and recovery- alongside chromium, a mineral rarely seen in electrolyte formulas. 

This contributes to the maintenance of normal blood glucose levels and may be particularly relevant in contexts such as fasting, morning use, exercise, or long travel days where energy regulation and hydration intersect.

Significantly, True Hydration also contains carbohydrates, an important consideration in an age where zero-sugar electrolytes are trending. Here’s why that’s a good thing. 

One of the most important mechanisms in hydration science is a transport protein in the small intestine called SGLT1 (sodium-glucose co-transporter 1). This transporter requires both sodium and glucose to function efficiently.

When glucose is present alongside sodium, the transporter actively pulls both into intestinal cells, and water follows osmotically. Without glucose, sodium absorption is significantly less efficient.

True Hydration contains a modest carbohydrate matrix from coconut water powder and inulin, enough to support efficient transport without creating a high-sugar drink. Inulin, a type of fibre, also plays an important role in supporting the gut microbiome. 

As for the taste this  comes from the ingredients themselves, including coconut water powder, which naturally contributes subtle sweetness and flavour. This matters as while “Natural flavours” sound reassuring, the reality is often more complicated.

Under flavouring regulations, “natural flavourings” can still consist of highly processed chemical mixtures containing dozens of individual compounds, solvents, stabilisers, or carriers, many of which consumers never see listed individually on labels.

The clinical research behind True Hydration

When choosing your electrolyte powder it's not just the formula that you need to consider. In a category where “science-backed” has become a marketing phrase applied to almost anything, independent research matters.

That’s why we didn’t just formulate True Hydration; we studied it.

We partnered with Cardiff Metropolitan University School of Sport and Health Sciences to conduct a randomised, controlled, triple-blind electrolyte clinical trial evaluating hydration and recovery.

Participants completed a cycling exercise in hot conditions before rehydrating with either True Hydration, coconut water, or flavoured water controls.

The study assessed markers including hydration status, thermoregulation, fatigue, grip strength, and inflammatory responses. You can read the full results here.

And convenience matters too. True Hydration comes in portable sachets because modern life is mobile. The goal is not perfection, it's making evidence-informed support easier to integrate consistently.

Closing thoughts:  More isn’t always the answer

Electrolyte backlash is partly a response to overmarketing. And that criticism is fair. Most people do not need aggressive sodium loading to survive a Pilates class.

But dismissing all hydration support because some brands overstate the problem misses the biology too.

The real conversation is not: “Do you need electrolytes?” It’s: If you are going to replenish, are you doing it intelligently? With appropriate sodium. With meaningful mineral balance. With carbohydrate-assisted absorption. With scientific evidence. With an understanding of how women’s physiology actually works. 

That's where True Hydration comes in. Formulated with physiology in mind and backed by independent clinical research, its science-backed hydration designed to work with your body as and when you need it to.