Dehydration and Sustain

I was inspired to write this blog because one of my Freedom United team members was dealing with twins under the age of one a couple of weeks ago that had a bad bad bug that was causing diarrhea. Even though things were crazy, she had the foresight to give them Sustain in their bottles. When she finally took them to their pediatrician, the Doctor was blown away that they were still hydrated and that their "levels" were good. I thought it was a great story (illness aside) and I was interested to dig in a little bit further to find out what Sustain can offer us not only when we are sick but even better, when we are not!

Dehydration is simply the loss of water. Symptoms can range from headaches to muscle cramps, decreased blood pressure or dizziness. Dehydration can be especially serious in little kids and babies. Hydration, conversely, is the presence of water- best case scenario! Water is hands down, the best way to hydrate and is what nature intended. Sometimes we need a little extra value in what we are putting into our body or to hydrate quickly with electrolytes. Sustain offers us that option with less sugar and fewer calories than other brands.

Working out is a time when we naturally lose hydration, critical electrolytes and energy. Our thirst mechanism is a good indicator that we need to rehydrate but we can't always count on thirst alone because we can often maintain below our ideal level of hydration without exhibiting thirst.

Electrolytes come into the picture because they are responsible for regulating the electrical charge and flow of water across cell membranes. Minerals like calcium, sodium, magnesium and potassium are known as electrolytes. Sustain contains a proprietary blend of these 4 electrolytes. Other brands only give you 2 electrolytes.

Sustain works through an exclusive blend of fructose and ribose rather than large amounts of simple sugars that can lead to blood sugar spikes and unsustained energy. Too much simple sugar draws water into the intestines and away from the rest of your body, leaving you further dehydrated. Another important point, Sustain contains natural vitamin E, C and B12.

To end, let me link this all back into to diarrhea and say that Sustain is an easy and good tasting way to replace energy and nutrients that are quickly being depleted due to infections, the flu, stress, food poisoning or malabsorption among other things. You can also add in Florify which contains probiotics if you aren't already taking it on a daily basis. That may just lead into next week's blog on probiotics...

Here's to your health and wellbeing!