How Hydration Effects Swelling

Hydration plays a crucial role in managing swelling (edema) in the body. It helps with fluid balance, the lymphatic system, and electrolyte balance.

Fluid Balance: Swelling often occurs when there is an imbalance of fluids in the body, typically caused by factors like poor circulation, injury, or underlying health conditions. Proper hydration helps maintain the body's fluid balance, which can prevent excessive fluid retention that contributes to swelling.

Lymphatic System: The lymphatic system, which helps remove excess fluid from tissues, relies on adequate hydration to function effectively. Dehydration can impair lymphatic drainage, leading to fluid buildup and swelling in affected areas.

Electrolyte Balance: Electrolytes like sodium and potassium are essential for regulating fluid levels in cells and tissues. When you're properly hydrated, electrolyte balance is easier to maintain, reducing the risk of fluid accumulation that can cause swelling. We recommend LMNT because it does not have sugar, and it tastes great. 

Inflammation Control: Chronic dehydration can contribute to inflammation, exacerbating conditions that cause swelling. Staying hydrated helps support the body's natural anti-inflammatory processes, potentially reducing swelling associated with inflammation.

Prevention of Complications: In some cases, swelling can lead to complications such as skin breakdown or impaired wound healing. Proper hydration supports overall health and can help prevent these complications from arising.

Tips for Maintaining Hydration:

- Drink water with electrolytes regularly throughout the day, especially in hot weather or during physical activity.

- Monitor urine color; pale yellow generally indicates adequate hydration.

- Be mindful of medications or medical conditions that may require adjustments in fluid intake.

Maintaining adequate hydration supports the body's natural mechanisms for managing fluid balance and can help alleviate swelling or edema by reducing fluid retention and supporting lymphatic function.

-Dr. Amanda Salazar

Overhydration

We are all familiar with how important it is to hydrate, and you’ve probably been told by a medical provider that you have to hydrate more. However, there is such a thing as too much. As with everything in the body, it’s all about balance.

The balance, in this case, is all about electrolytes and water. The body is a bioelectric machine and requires the right balance of fluids to conduct signals like nerve impulses that create muscle contraction. When you eat and drink, the body takes what it needs to keep this balance, and then excretes the rest out. You can easily see this after a salty meal when you urinate. That’s the body dumping out the excess salt. Conversely, if you haven’t had enough salt, the body will excrete more water and your urine will be clearer. 

Dehydration has its risks and you won’t live long without water. However, overhydration can be just as deadly. When you gulp down tons of water prior to a sporting event thinking that it’s a good thing, you can develop hyponatremia. That means that you’ve diluted the fluids and now you don’t have enough salt. Under normal circumstances, the body would just eliminate some water and restore balance. However, if you are a distance runner, you likely are not going to stop to pee. Then if you continue to hydrate, you could get yourself into some trouble. 

Water in the body resides both inside a cell (intracellular), and outside the cell (extracellular). The extracellular fluid is primarily in blood plasma, with a small amount residing in the lymph. About ⅔ of the water is in the intracellular fluid and ⅓ in the extracellular fluid. When you are overhydrated, in an attempt to restore electrolyte balance, water will move from the bloodstream into the cells. This will lead to puffy fingers and toes, and even worse, it can cause hydrocephalus. This means swelling in the brain, and it can be deadly. 

There have been many instances of runners collapsing and dying from overhydration, and many more hospitalizations. So how do we know how much water to drink? This is a complicated question and depends on many factors, such as the type of sport, conditioning levels, male vs. female, body weight, sweat rate, environmental heat, etc. There are some symptoms that will clue you into the early signs of hyponatremia. If your wedding ring is feeling tighter, that’s a sign you have too much fluid retention. Other signs include confusion, cramps, vomiting, and headache. If it goes on for too long, one could go into a coma, have seizures, and even die. 

Part of the issue is that we’ve been told how important it is to hydrate, however this may be an overcorrection and there is a history behind it. In the 1900’s, athletes were told not to drink during a sporting event. Then in the 1960’s, gatorade was invented by a physician at the University of Florida that improved performance for their football team. A whole industry was born around rehydration. As humans do, we overcorrected to the point where many athletes are now overhydrating (thanks to Precision Hydration for the history summary). There are lots of recommendations out there for strategies to optimally hydrate, but bearing in mind all the individual differences we have and all the factors that go into fluid balance, there is no one size fits all answer. Precision Hydration is an organization that has a free online test you can take to give you an idea of what you may need and will even give you a hydration plan. Check it out here.