Most people are surprised to learn that, despite drinking tons of water, their bodies can still become functionally dehydrated. According to mineral expert and co-founder of BEAM Minerals, Caroline Alan, true hydration doesn’t happen until the right minerals are present to help water enter your cells.
With so much talk surrounding dehydration, Alan says water alone isn’t enough to keep you hydrated. Instead, she argues that the right minerals, especially fulvic and humic acids, help improve hydration at the cellular level — boosting your energy, focus, and digestion without caffeine. To learn more about this hydration hack, I interviewed Alan to get the scoop on how these minerals fight against dehydration.
Why water isn’t enough to fight dehydration
“People believe that to hydrate, all they have to do is put water into their mouth,” says Alan. “The fact is that hydration is a much more involved process that includes getting water and nutrients into your cells. When this happens, you experience feeling hydrated! Your skin is plump and healthy, your joints are well-lubricated, your digestion works well, and a huge number of bodily functions occur with the support of many micronutrients carried into your cells via the water molecules. Water is a carrier molecule. It is the key to moving nutrients around your body.”
“What most people are doing when they drink lots of filtered or distilled (bottled) water is irrigating their system, not hydrating. When you drink empty water, water with no minerals in it, your body mostly just says, ‘What is this? This is useless!’ and the water goes straight through and out. So, you drink a lot, and then you urinate a lot. This is a lot like what happens when you water a very dry house plant — the water doesn’t absorb into the soil! Instead, it goes straight through, often overflowing the tray the plant is sitting in. The plant (like your body) stays dry, even though you have added lots of water,” says Alan.
“So, irrigating your system with lots of empty water is not the same as hydrating. Hydration requires less actual H2O input, but your body absorbs more and has more water to utilize.”
The science behind dehydration
To understand the way to properly tackle dehydration, Alan says we must first do a deep dive into the science. “Water without any minerals is effectively dead. It is not capable of supporting life. Water’s job is to be the carrier of minerals and nutrients in natural ecosystems, and your body is an ecosystem,” she shares.
When people drink water without minerals, the body can only absorb a very small amount of water, causing your system to flush out essential minerals and minerals and worsening dehydration. “Minerals have electrical charges and chemical properties that drive the entire energy system in your body, and without them, your body will cease to operate in a matter of hours,” she says.
Signs of dehydration
Part of managing proper hydration levels is paying close attention to your body’s signs and symptoms of dehydration. “People who are not absorbing the water they drink will experience constant dehydration, no matter how much they drink, and they will have frequent urination. Over time, this will cause systemic dehydration, which will affect many systems and processes in the body,” says Alan.
In turn, this systemic dehydration can result in a unique mix of symptoms:
- Digestive stress
- Emotional stress
- Cognitive stress
- Aches
- Pains
- Low energy levels
- Immunity struggles
Minerals: The solution for dehydration
Once you’ve understood the real cause of dehydration and its symptoms, finding the solution is easy. Alan says a quick, daily mineral protocol can help support your energy, digestion, and hydration without relying on coffee or soda.
“Full spectrum mineral replenishment is the first thing to add to your health routine, and it must be kept up every single day for the rest of your life. It’s like a campfire, if you don’t keep adding fuel, it will burn low and then out.”
Just ½ oz of a daily mineral routine like BEAM Minerals can help replenish your body and allow your body’s ecosystem to regain balance. Each person’s unique experience may vary slightly, depending on how dehydrated and depleted they are.
Yet, Alan says most people will feel an increase in energy within one week and then over the coming weeks to months will become to experience a return to balance in their body.
“This will usually mean a resolution of chronic symptoms they have been struggling with, including headaches, cramping, sleep issues, elimination issues, brain fog, gut inflammation, food cravings, etc.”
“Humic and fulvic minerals are natural mineral substances designed by nature. What people don’t understand about minerals is that they work together in the body in specific ratios and balance to support life. Since all cells on the planet need minerals to function, Mother Nature designed the perfect, mineral-rich molecules to deliver the nutrients directly into cells in a naturally balanced way.”
