Are you hydrated?

Why Hydration (and Electrolytes) Matter More Than You Think

Not many people know what yoga therapy is, and there are only 6 registered yoga therapists in New

We all know we should drink more water, yet so many of us still struggle to stay properly hydrated. What's often overlooked though, is that hydration isn't just about drinking plain water; it's also about maintaining the right balance of electrolytes that help our bodies actually use that water effectively. Let's break down why this matters, and how understanding the difference between intracellular and extracellular water can help you hydrate smarter.

Understanding Your Body's Water Compartments

Your body is about 60% water, but that water isn't just sloshing around aimlessly - it's carefully divided into two main spaces:

Intracellular water (inside your cells)

Extracellular water (outside your cells - in blood, lymph, and spaces between cells)

About two thirds of your total body water is intracellular. This water keeps your cells plump, supports enzyme activity, and helps carry nutrients and waste in and out of the cell.

The remaining one third is extracellular, which includes your blood plasma and interstitial fluid (the fluid between cells). This water is critical for blood pressure, nutrient transport, and waste removal.

Keeping the right fluid balance between these compartments is vital. Too much or too little water in either can cause problems - from dehydration and fatigue, to swelling or even electrolyte imbalances that affect your heart and muscles.

So, What Do Electrolytes Have To Do With This?

Electrolytes, like sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride are minerals that carry an electric charge. They control how and where water moves in your body.

Here's how:

• Sodium is the main regulator of extracellular fluid - it helps keep the right amount of water in your blood and spaces between cells

• Potassium is the key player inside your cells - it helps keep intracellular fluid levels healthy

• Magnesium and calcium help with nerve signalling and muscle contractions, which can be disrupted if you're dehydrated

If you drink a lot of plain water but don't replenish electrolytes, especially after heavy sweating, intense exercise, or illness, you can dilute your sodium and other electrolytes, leading to problems like headaches, muscle cramps, dizziness, or even dangerous conditions like hyponatremia (low blood sodium).

How Stress Affects Your Electrolyte Needs

Another factor that many people overlook is stress - whether physical (like hard workouts) or mental (like tight deadlines or emotional strain). When you're stressed, your body produces more cortisol and adrenaline, which can increase fluid loss and shift how your kidneys manage sodium and other minerals. Chronic stress can lead to increased magnesium depletion, higher sodium loss through urine, and even changes in potassium balance. This is one reason why people under prolonged stress often feel fatigued, get muscle tension, or have trouble sleeping - low magnesium and electrolyte imbalance play a role.

Tip: If you know you're going through a stressful period, pay extra attention to nourishing meals with plenty of magnesium-rich foods (nuts, seeds, leafy greens, dark chocolate), keep up your hydration, and consider extra daily electrolyte support to help your body cope.

A Special Note For Peri-Menopausal Women

If you're peri-menopausal, paying attention to hydration and electrolytes is especially important. Fluctuating hormones can affect your body's fluid balance, often leading to more night sweats, hot flashes, and increased water loss. Many women also notice more bloating and swelling at times.

Tip: Focus on steady hydration throughout the day and as mentioned above, include plenty of electrolyte-rich foods like leafy greens, bananas, avocados, nuts, and seeds. A gentle electrolyte drink (low in added sugar) can help replenish minerals lost not only through exercise (and stress as mentioned previously) but also through night sweats or hot flashes. Additional electrolytes will also support better sleep and muscle relaxation.

How To Hydrate Smarter

1. Don't just chase litres - think balance

   Drink water consistently throughout the day, but remember that food (especially fruits and vegetables) also provides fluids and electrolytes.

   
   

2. Replace what you lose

   If you sweat heavily, exercise intensely, work outdoors in heat, or experience frequent hot flashes and night sweats, you need more than just water - replenish electrolytes too. This can be with an electrolyte drink, a homemade mix (water, a pinch of salt, and a splash of juice), or naturally through balanced meals and snacks.

   
   

3. Pay attention to your body

   Thirst is a good indicator, but also watch for signs of dehydration or imbalance: dry mouth, dark urine, dizziness, fatigue, or muscle cramps.

   
   
   
   

The Bottom Line

Hydration is more than just drinking water. It's about making sure your body has the right fluids and electrolytes that help your cells, blood, and organs work in harmony. By understanding how intracellular and extracellular water function - and the role electrolytes (and stress!) play in balancing them - you can keep your energy up, your brain sharp, and your body performing at its best.

For peri-menopausal women and anyone dealing with chronic stress, staying on top of this balance is a simple but powerful way to support your health and resilience.

So next time you grab your water bottle, consider pairing it with some electrolyte support - your cells (and your hormones) will thank you!

Stay hydrated, stay balanced, stay healthy ✨

Zealand so it’s not too surprising if you’ve never heard of this approach to body-mind health. It’s also

tricky to explain the breadth of it in a few short words as the scope of practice and treatment

options are extensive.

What’s important for most people is that it doesn’t have to include yoga postures!

What

Movement practice is just one option that can help you on your path to optimal health. Other

options include postural assessment and guidance, rehabilitation and recovery, strength and

stability, breath work, anxiety, stress, trauma and mental health support, strategies to manage long

term health conditions, manual lymphatic drainage, Ayurvedic treatments, and various other

bodywork options.

Yoga therapy is about finding ease –

in whatever you want to do, and however you want to be

Why

The origins and foundations of this therapeutic approach come from the traditions of Yoga and

Ayurveda (Indian health system) as a way of observing and assessing each individual person to guide

wellbeing activities and lifestyle choices. This wisdom is supplemented with contemporary

knowledge, skills and interventions from Western medicine and health care to provide a pathway to

optimal health that is interesting, manageable and relevant to you.

Whilst Western medicine sees health as the absence of disease, Yoga and Ayurveda focus on optimal

health, and there’s no one who knows what that feels like in your body mind than you! There’s no

one who knows when something just isn’t right, doesn’t feel good, or could be better more than

you. Yoga therapy places you as the expert in knowing what doesn’t feel easeful in your body – using

this awareness as the foundation for assessment, interventions and goal setting.

Whilst you might not know what sensations of dis-ease mean -

you know when they are there, and how they make you feel

Yoga therapy deciphers the puzzle to determine the root cause(s) of dis-ease and find a way to

better health that works for you.

My experience with a Continuous Glucose Monitor as a non-diabetic. by Alaina Langridge, PT & Nutritionists personal experience

A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is an amazing piece of tech that makes the life of so many diabetics much easier to manage! It measures blood glucose levels in real-time, making it easier than a finger prick for diabetics to understand their levels and administer insulin accordingly. However the readings can also help anyone understand

their body’s unique responses to food, exercise, and lifestyle factors.

For everyone, diabetic or not, glucose is a primary fuel source. It powers our cells, supports brain function, and affects everything from mood to stamina. But while glucose provides essential energy, its levels fluctuate throughout the day, based on food, activity, stress, and sleep. High variability, especially with frequent spikes and crashes, can lead to

energy dips, increased hunger, irritability, and poor focus.

For me as a ‘non-diabetic but extremely interested nutritionist’ I've been keen to try one for a while to see how it works, what data it provides, and if I would learn anything about myself. I did it for 10 days, using a Dexcom G7 and here are my takeaways…..

• Firstly, getting started I have to admit that I had two failed sensors before I finally received one that worked. However the shipping and customer service was very thorough and quick in getting it sorted and I had a new one in the mail within a couple of days each time (highly recommend doing the process online through their website as on the phone was very tedious).

• Setting up the sensor is straightforward using an app on your phone. You apply the sensor to the skin (a small needle in a convenient applicator that I didn’t even feel) and it syncs via bluetooth, taking continuous readings (every 5 minutes) all day and night. Yes, your phone does need to be within about 6 metres at all times.

The Good:

• The data you see on the app is really clear, it shows trends over time and I enjoyed seeing how certain meals made my blood sugars spike or drop. As I have a pretty solid understanding of nutrition and the way I eat reflects that, it wasn’t a surprise to see that my blood sugars remain pretty stable, with just small fluctuations within the ‘normal’ range. I never went above the upper limit, but sometimes after long runs if I didn’t eat soon enough I would drop below the lower limit. Also not surprising as I could tell by my low energy. This helped to remind me to get fuel, especially protein, in more quickly after a hard training session.

• Food is not just the only thing that affects blood glucose levels; lack of sleep, stress and exercise can all affect it quite dramatically and this is really interesting to see. I was wearing my monitor while I had quite a severe skiing accident and my blood sugars rose as close to the upper limit as I saw the whole 10 days. Such an interesting thing to understand how adrenaline and cortisol in response to stress can skyrocket blood sugar levels. An important physiological reaction to help us deal with the stressor, but not helpful if that’s happening regularly in response to things that are not an actual reason to fear.

The not so good:

• Wearing one is a little glitchy if you're a side sleeper like me. The pressure on my arm would constantly make the sensor think I was having an urgent low and would set off alarms. These were LOUD. Obviously this would be more important if I was actually diabetic, but it was quite annoying for many nights as it woke me up, until I figured out how to disable the alarms.

• Blood glucose fluctuations are NORMAL. It’s part of the normal response to eating food that your blood glucose will raise and lower as the food is digested. The goal is not to have blood glucose that is a flat line, but for the layperson I can see it being something that’s easy to worry about and stress over if there is a lack of understanding. Let’s face it, unless you’ve studied medicine or work with this on a regular basis most people

aren’t going to understand. My worry is that the fluctuations are something the average person could easily stress about, and likely unnecessarily so.

Should I get one?

If you’re someone who doesn’t understand how different types of meals affect your blood glucose levels and you notice significant energy crashes throughout the day on a consistent basis, then a CGM may be a great learning experience for you. For some people it can be surprising how things they consider ‘healthy’ may affect an individual

differently depending on their unique genetics. Every one, and every food is different so you may find valuable information into why things are happening in your body and what types of foods or meals or lifestyle choices may be negatively affecting you.

Exercise has a significant impact on glucose, which the CGM makes visible in real-time. A walk after a meal, for example, often keeps glucose from spiking, while more intense exercise can temporarily raise levels before causing a drop. This insight is particularly helpful for athletes who want to time their meals and workouts for peak performance

so if that's you, it could be helpful.

Another surprising insight for many non-diabetics is the impact of sleep on glucose. Sleep deprivation often leads to higher glucose levels throughout the day. Using a CGM, you can actually see how a rough night’s sleep translates into elevated glucose, helping you connect the dots between lifestyle factors and metabolic health. If you need a kick up

the bum to sleep more, or improve your sleep hygiene this could be helpful for you.

Otherwise if you’ve got pretty good energy, sleep well and feel like you’ve got a handle on your nutrition then this is probably one bio-hacking gadget that you might not need. You decided what is best for you and of course be guided by your health care professional.

Why am I so tired all the time?

Do you feel tired all the time? Do most days leave you with moments of feeling totally sluggish, even after a good night's sleep?

This can be a frustrating thing to experience as we are all so different and finding the culprit is a bit of a guessing game. Here are some things to think about that might be contributing to why you feel so tired….

Sleep Quality

Let’s start with the most logical reason, your sleep. So many people simply suffer from chronic sleep deprivation. The recommended amount is 7-8 hours per night but so many things can affect the quality of those hours - like hormones. Melatonin and cortisol are the hormones responsible for regulating your sleep cycle.

Things you can do to optimise your melatonin and cortisol levels:

• As much as possible, go to bed and wake at the same time each day

• Expose yourself to lots of natural light in the morning

• Avoid screens and blue light 1-2 hours before bed

• Keep your bedroom dark and slightly cooler

• Avoid caffeine and alcohol, especially in the afternoon and evening

• Consume tryptophan and magnesium rich foods at dinner, eg, nuts, seeds, eggs, dairy, poultry, spinach.

• Exercise regularly but keep vigorous exercise in the morning or early afternoon and gentle exercise in the evening.

• Try some simple deep breathing before going to bed and/or a hot bath or shower.

Diet

Your energy levels are hugely governed by what you eat, because your body converts the fats, proteins, and carbohydrates from your food into energy. If your diet is regularly less than ideal, it could be a contributor to ongoing fatigue.

A diet that is high in refined carbohydrates, such as pasta, white breads, desserts, and sweetened drinks and fruit juices, can contribute to fatigue. These types of carbohydrates cause a rapid spike in blood sugar, which leads to a surge of insulin to move sugar out of the blood and into the cells, followed by a drop in blood sugar – all of

which can leave you feeling worn out.

Maintaining a healthy blood sugar level is associated with better metabolic health and improved energy. Testing both your insulin level and your hemoglobin A1c level (which reflects your average blood sugar levels over the previous three months) are two ways to monitor how well your body is metabolising those carbs.

Tips for supporting balanced blood sugar levels are:

• Consume fat and/or protein with your carbohydrates. Eg, and eggs or avocado or salmon to toast. Add protein and veggies to pasta.

• Consume plenty of fibre with your carbohydrates. Eg, add leafy greens to a smoothie. Eat a raw salad with pasta or fries.

• Eat your sugary foods or drinks after you’ve already had a balanced satisfying meal.

Fatigue can also stem from what you are not eating.

If you are not eating a well-balanced diet, which includes plenty of colorful vegetables, moderate amounts of fruit, lean protein, and sources of healthy fats like olive oil and fish, you could be deficient in essential nutrients, which is another common cause of fatigue.

Common deficiencies linked to fatigue include vitamin D, vitamin B12, folate, iron, and zinc. Testing for all of these is a good idea to determine if you need to improve your diet, or supplement for a time.

Hydration

Let’s keep this bit short and sweet. The body is about 60% water. Not enough water will slow down your blood, reducing blood pressure and stopping all the good stuff like nutrients, vitamins and minerals from being moved effectively around your body. End result? Low energy! It can also decrease your cognitive function and mood. Aim for 33mls per kg of body weight and you’ll be on track.

Anemia

Following on from deficiencies in the diet, iron deficiency anemia is a common cause for feeling weak and tired. In fact, it is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world! Deficiencies of folate and vitamin B12 can also cause anemia and fatigue.

The best way to know if your fatigue is a result of anemia is a blood test. You should especially consider getting a complete blood count test if you:

• Have a malabsorption syndrome, such as Crohn’s disease or Celiac disease

• A woman who has heavy menstrual cycles

• Pregnant or a woman of childbearing age

• Have low stomach acid

• Have poor kidney function

• Donate blood regularly

• Elderly

• Thyroid Problems

Thyroid Problems

The thyroid gland affects virtually every organ in the body. But various health factors can cause your thyroid to make either too much of its T3 and T4 hormones (hyperthyroidism) or too little T3 and T4 (hypothyroidism) – and either extreme can cause sleep problems, fatigue, and muscle weakness.

Not every individual who has abnormal levels of T3 and/or T4 will experience obvious symptoms, so test the thyroid’s key hormones – TSH, T3, and T4 to determine if this is the cause of your fatigue. Signs to look for which might make this relevant for you include:

• Have health conditions (such as elevated LDL-cholesterol, fatty liver, or obesity) that can’t be explained by diet and lifestyle or other health-related factors

• Are over 40 years old – especially if you are a woman

• Experience dry or thinning skin, hair, or nails

• A woman with unexplained infertility

• Have a sensitivity to cold or heat

• Have unexplained weight gain

• Have difficulty losing weight

• Menopause

Trying to find your reason for fatigue can be exhausting! But keep being your own best advocate, experiment with what works and doesn’t work for YOU and don’t undervalue the small things like staying well hydrated and moving your body.