Human bodies need water. Our cells will not function properly if they’re not hydrated.
Water has important operations to perform both inside the cells (intracellular) and outside the cells (extracellular).
When insufficient water gets into the cells, a condition of intracellular dehydration exists. No matter how much water you’re drinking, if the water isn’t getting into the cells, your cells are dehydrated.
If you are drinking plenty of water and still feel thirsty, if your thirst is insatiable, it’s most likely that the water is not getting into the cells.
Why Is Intracellular Dehydration Important?
Water should be present both inside and outside of the cells, and the ratio is slightly different for men and women. For men, 60 percent or higher of the water should be inside the cells. For women, 55 percent or higher should be inside the cells.
If the intracellular and extracellular percentages are off, if there is not enough water inside the cells, that most often indicates intracellular dehydration. There can be a build-up of substances outside of the cells from such things as sodium (salt), metabolic waste, and toxins that is causing the intracellular dehydration, and it’s usually toxicity that causes intracellular dehydration.
The water will be drawn away from the inside of the cells to the toxicity outside of the cells in an effort to flush the toxic buildup from the body. When this happens, the inside of the cells can become dehydrated. There are some toxins such as heavy metals for which the body has no removal path so they will stay in the body and can continue to draw water from inside the cells.
If the body cannot flush quickly enough to keep up with the volume of toxins and metabolic waste, the built-up substances can eventually find their way to the inside of the cells where they can do a lot of damage. Intracellular dehydration can be a sign of toxic build up, and those toxins can do cellular damage.
When intracellular dehydration is being caused by a buildup of toxins, drinking huge amounts of water or taking more electrolytes is of very limited use because the water won’t get into the cells. Removal of the excess metabolic, chemical and metals toxicity through a detoxification program is very often the most effective remedy for cellular dehydration.
Signs of Intracellular Dehydration
An obvious sign of dehydration is thirst. In fact, you shouldn’t wait to feel thirsty to drink water because by the time you feel thirsty, you are already somewhat dehydrated. Other common symptoms of intracellular dehydration include headaches, low energy, weakness, light-headedness, difficulty concentrating, brain fog.
The symptoms do not have to be severe. Even very mild symptoms can indicate a condition of intracellular dehydration.
Testing for Intracellular Hydration
There are blood tests that will measure the amounts of sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium in the blood. The results will indicate whether the levels are high, normal, or low. Those measurements are very useful to know, but the blood tests do not measure how much water is getting into the cells.
To test to determine your actual hydration level, how much water is in the cells, is a bio-impedance analysis (BIA). BIA provides a number of important measurements such as fat-to-muscle ratio, metabolic rate and hydration level, specifically how much water is inside the cells.
BIA is a very simple, painless, non-invasive test and provides an excellent starting point to improve hydration levels.
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