The Myth About Magnesium

April 08, 2019

The Myth About Magnesium

Despite marketing claims to the contrary, magnesium in your sports drink is not helping you rehydrate more effectively.

Recently there has been much ado made about the electrolyte magnesium and it’s role in rehydration. Many of the Oral Rehydration Solutions are advertising their ORS has magnesium and it is critical to your rehydration.

It is not.

According to Dr. David Sack, “The crucial ingredients in ORS are sodium, chloride, potassium, a base (typically citrate) and a carbohydrate. There is no evidence that the inclusion of other electrolytes, e.g. magnesium or zinc, in an ORS improves its hydration performance.”


Cera Products Are Truly Optimized Hydration

Sold out

Sold out

Sold out

Sold out

The Preeminent Expert in His Field

Dr. Sack spent 15 years in Bangladesh conducting research at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, (ICDDR,B) including eight years as its executive director pioneering the use of ORS in the treatment of cholera.

While at the ICDDR,B he accepted the first Gates Award for Global Health on behalf of the Centre in 2001. He is also head of the Enteric Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Immunization Research.

He has authored more than 300 articles and serves on advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, the International Vaccine Institute, and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).

There is no evidence that the inclusion of other electrolytes, e.g. magnesium or zinc, in an ORS improves its hydration performance.

Dr. David Sack

The Magnesium You Really Need

The current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for adult men is 420 mg and women is 320 mg magnesium per day. This daily allowance fulfills literally hundreds of jobs and functions in your body. Only one of which is helping you not cramp during your workout.

You are more often replacing all the magnesium in your daily diet and didn’t even realize it. When you make your kids their daily peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with a banana and a glass of milk- that is over half your needed requirement for magnesium. One cup of spinach has 150 mg of magnesium, almost half your daily need in your side salad. Beans, broccoli, whole grains, almonds, and other nuts are also great sources of magnesium.

I can hear some of you wondering, so what about the magnesium you sweat out?

The magnesium your body loses when you sweat is microscopic. Roughly 15 mg when working out intensely.

You typically poop out 50 mg of magnesium per day. You urinate the same amount or more as well.

Making Sure You Get What You DO Need

Athletes, service members, and everyone living an active lifestyle simply do not need more magnesium than what a healthy diet provides. Worse, ORS products that add magnesium to their product increases the Osmolality, or particles in the solution, of the product. If the concentration exceeds a 310 Osmolality score, it will actually dehydrate you.

In order ensure that this does not happen, they have to take something out. Often times they reduce the amount of chloride. Unlike magnesium, as Dr. Sack pointed out, chloride is a critical electrolyte to rehydrating your body.

When you sweat you lose the same amount of chloride as you do sodium. Not replenishing these electrolytes to an equal proportion to what you sweat out mean you risk decreased athletic or mission performance, cramps, and heat injuries.

When we created the formulas for our Cerasport and Ceralyte families of rehydration beverages, we started with an absolute commitment to use only what works. We partnered with the pioneers in the field of rehydration, an elite team of scientists from Johns Hopkins. Men and women with decades of real-world experience. It took Cera two years to perfect the formulas you can use today.

With only sodium, chloride, potassium, citrate, a little all-natural flavoring, sweetener, and our medically proven best in class rice-based carbohydrate source we created a continuum of rehydration beverages that have only what you need to keep your body hydrated, and performing at its best. All natural, Non-GMO and with organically grown California rice.

 

The Best Trust Cera

The science is clear, you simply do not need magnesium in your sports drink or ORS. This is why when the United States Air Force decided add an ORS to every one of its Individual First Aid Kits (IFAKs), they choose our Ceralyte formula. When every single American Special Operations Unit has evaluated sports drinks and ORS products, all of them- Army Rangers, Navy SEALS, MARSOC Raiders, and AFSOC units all have chosen Cera.

Only the ingredients you need to maintain proper hydration and rehydrate you body, and nothing else. That is why since 1993 the best have relied on Cera Products for their hydration needs.





Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.