487-The Power of Electrolytes-My Story
When it comes to electrolytes I did not know very much until about 8 mos ago. You’d think with my athletic background which spanned the gamut from decades of ice hockey at a serious level, tennis, mountain biking, and even mountain bike racing that I would be familiar with electrolytes, but no.
Aside from Gatorade which I hate, I really was not aware that average people, or anyone not a paid athlete, can benefit from electrolyte consumption. I followed the “health experts” who said to drink 8 glasses of water each day, more if you’re sweating, but they were always demonizing salts in every form. Remember a low-sodium, low-fat, and plant-based diet is best…! We’ve all heard this nonsense from the FDA on sodium intake, I think it’s crap.
I even listened to my own doctors who pretty much caused an electrolyte deficiency by prescribing medications that cause fluid and mineral loss and then double-downed with advice to take other prescriptions to help with symptoms caused by the prior medicines, read-lunacy!
A few years back during a routine checkup my by was a touch high, 125/80 and the doctor advised going on a low dose BP med basically so my wife would not worry. I also had started snoring for the first time, so the doctor and my wife were worried about potential sleep apnea and future heart problems so I agreed on the low dose of BP meds.
A few years later, I started having some weird heart rhythm issues called PVCs which are common, about 20 million Americans have this. It’s not life-threatening but it can be very strange and uncomfortable when your heart flops around. I was referred to a cardiologist and prescribed yet another drug. Still blindly following the advice I started that medication, but after a few weeks I hate the side effects and threw it away, and never went back to the cardiologist.
The PVCs continued for years and were ok sometimes but not always. I started exercising more and realized I could not be on meds that caused excessive urination, because with additional sweating I would get dizzy, likely from dehydration and electrolyte imbalances so I had the meds changed and decided to see a functional medicine practitioner instead of the family MD who just followed his guidelines and gave the same dumb advice.
During this process, the functional medicine doctor had extensive blood panels drawn, like 12 vials of blood. They tried to take blood in the office, but the physician’s assistant got no blood from the left arm, she switched to the right and go no blood, that’s how dehydrated I was. She had never seen this in any patient. I waited for a few days and drank a ton of water and went again, this time some blood came out, but still not flowing that freely.
The results showed my electrolytes were way out of balance with potassium and sodium low, and magnesium slightly low. They suggested I take some electrolytes and after doing some research I settled on one. Within a week the constant PVCs went away, and except for a 2-day period, they have been gone which is amazing.
My BP is quite a bit lower and I know am only on half the prescribed dose and working to shed the last 15 pounds I have to lose to get to my goal of 155 pounds and hopefully be off all meds! I am riding my bike a lot more and really seeing great health improvements and I credit electrolytes with much of that improvement, especially with increased energy.
Important Links:
Resources for today’s Show:
https://drinklmnt.com/pages/our-story
https://myoxcience.com/collections/hormone-adrenal-support