Dehydrated from Drinking Water? Here’s Why

We’ve all been told to drink 8 glasses of water a day. Sounds healthy. But what if that advice is actually sabotaging your health?

But the truth is, drinking 8 glasses of water a day can be totally throwing off your electrolyte balance—and actually making you feel worse.

Water is essential, but being well-hydrated isn’t just about how much water you drink—it’s about how well your body is able to absorb and use that water.

Your body runs on a delicate balance of electrolytes—sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. These electrolytes are vital to keeping us alive, regulating our heart beat, nerve impulses, muscle contractions, and our fluid levels. Without these electrolytes, you’re just drinking water–and peeing it all back out.

If you guzzle plain water without electrolytes all day, you may end up with symptoms like:

• Headaches

• Brain fog

• Fatigue

• Muscle cramps

• Irregular heartbeat

• Nausea, confusion and death in severe cases

This condition is actually fairly common and can happen to athletes, kids, older adults and anyone sweating it out in hot weather.

So what’s really going on?

Your body doesn’t just crave water—it craves electrically charged minerals to transport that water into your cells. When you overhydrate with plain water, you flush these essential electrolytes out, disrupting everything in your body.

Here’s a smarter way to hydrate…

• Add a pinch of sea salt and a squeeze of lemon to your water

• Sip on unsweetened coconut water

• Try a clean electrolyte supplement without added sugar or chemicals

True hydration is about absorption—and for that, your body needs more than H₂O.