Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff works dot com where
Speaker 1: smart happens. Hi am merciall brain with today's question, what
Speaker 1: are electrolytes? For example, when you see a commercial for
Speaker 1: Gatorade or some of their sports drink like that and
Speaker 1: they talk about electrolytes, what are they talking about. An
Speaker 1: electrolyte is a medical scientific term for salts, specifically for ions.
Speaker 1: The term electrolyte means that this ion is electrically charged.
Speaker 1: For example, your body fluids things like your blood, your plasma,
Speaker 1: the lymph that's flowing through your lymph nodes are very
Speaker 1: similar to seawater. These fluids contain a lot of salt,
Speaker 1: also known as sodium chloride. The electrolytes and sodium chloride
Speaker 1: are the sodium ion and the chloride ion. When you
Speaker 1: drink salt and it dissolves in why or it splits
Speaker 1: into these two charged ions. As for your body, the
Speaker 1: major electrolytes include sodium and chloride, which we just mentioned, potassium, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, phosphate,
Speaker 1: and sulfate. These electrolytes are important because they're what your cells,
Speaker 1: especially your nerve, heart and muscle cells, used to carry
Speaker 1: electrical impulses through nerve fibers. When you exercise heavily, though,
Speaker 1: you lose electrolytes in your sweat, particularly sodium and potassium.
Speaker 1: These electrolytes have to be replaced to keep the electrolyte
Speaker 1: concentrations of your body fluids constant. So many sports drinks
Speaker 1: have sodium chloride or potassium chloride added to them. They
Speaker 1: also have sugar and flavorings to make these ions taste better.
Speaker 1: Another example where electrolyte drinks are important is when an
Speaker 1: infant or a child has a chronic vomiting or diarrhea problems, say,
Speaker 1: because of an essenal flu virus. When children vomit or
Speaker 1: have diarrhea, they lose electro lights. Again, these electro lights
Speaker 1: and the fluids have to be replaced to prevent dehydration
Speaker 1: and seizures. Therefore, drinks like pedia Light have sodium and
Speaker 1: potassium in them, just like the sports drinks do. However,
Speaker 1: pediatricians don't recommend giving sports drinks to a sick kid
Speaker 1: because sports drinks usually have a lot of sugar, and
Speaker 1: sugar isn't particularly good for a sick kid. Be sure
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