Digestion and hydration

Digestion without proper hydration is a painful process: I have had two clients with medically-diagnosed Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), one of whom did not have IBS at all and the other who did not have it nearly as badly as they had thought. They were so dehydrated that digestion had been braught nearly to a halt. In one case, the client drank a lot of water (a few gallons per day!) but did not consume enough salt to keep up with her perspiration losses (she exercised VERY vigorously every day), resulting in her body not being able to retain the fluids she drank. While excess salt is extremely unhealthy, a person who exercises at a very high level needs to replace at least half their losses or digestion will become difficult as the body struggles to retain fluids (fluids are needed for digestion to occur efficiently). Drinking fruit juice and soda instead of water can result in the same problem since those fluids do not hydrate a person as well as water does, whether you are an athlete or not. Hydration is absolutely central to digestion. The first thing everyone should do in the morning when they wake is drink 8 to 24 oz of water. At least half of this should be water, the rest can be coffee or tea but over 2 cups of either of these results in dehydration (due to forced loss of fluids via the kidneys called diuresis).

Comments

[Kyle]

I have a similar problem. How should one introduce additional salt in the diet, aside from adding sea salt onto meals? I run or work out vigorously one hour per day.