Electrolytes are vital to maintaining hydration, muscle function, and overall health—especially during sauna sessions or saunagus where significant sweating occurs. Ensuring you replenish your electrolytes before, during, and after using the sauna is key to avoiding dehydration, muscle cramps, fatigue, and more serious health issues. By keeping your electrolyte levels balanced, you can safely and effectively enjoy the benefits of the sauna without compromising your physical well-being.
What are electrolytes?
Electrolytes are minerals or salt in the body that gets ionized in fluids and can carry an electrical charge. These minerals which include sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride and phosphate exist in body fluids and help to maintain a healthy balance of fluids in the cells and in the body overall, which is crucial for your physical wellbeing and ability to perform.
They help with the amount of water in your body, the acidity of your blood and with your nerve and muscle function.
We ingest electrolytes through diet and drink and the body regulates its levels by adjusting the excretion through urine, sweat and other processes. By intense physical activity or saunagus can lead to imbalance and need supplementing intake of electrolytes either through diet or as a supplement.
The Importance of Electrolytes and Sauna Use
When you spend time in a sauna, especially for prolonged sessions, your body undergoes significant sweating due to the heat. While sweating helps to detoxify and cool your body, it also causes the loss of electrolytes, which are crucial for maintaining proper fluid balance and cellular function. Electrolytes help maintain your body’s fluid balance. When you are in the sauna and sweating heavily, your body loses both water and electrolytes, potentially leading to dehydration if you do not replenish both. Sodium and potassium, in particular, help your body hold onto the fluids it needs to avoid dehydration.
The proper function of your heart, muscles and nerves depends on a balance of electrolytes. Potassium, sodium, and magnesium help transmit electrical signals between your cells, allowing for smooth and coordinated muscle contractions. This is important during sauna use, as the body requires effective communication between cells to handle the heat and maintain normal function.
Electrolyte imbalance can lead to mental fog, dizziness, or confusion. If you are in a sauna for an extended period, the combination of dehydration and electrolyte loss can impair cognitive function and reduce your overall mental clarity. Ensuring you have adequate electrolytes supports both physical and mental well-being.
How much electrolytes should I take after saunagus?
It is important to refill electrolytes after a saunagus, because you may have lost fluid and minerals through sweat. The amount of electrolytes you should take can vary depending on the length of the saunagus, your bodyweight and how much fluid you have lost.
As a starting point we in Plugin recommend you drink 0.5 liter of water with electrolytes that you can buy at many webshops, sports shops and pharmacies. We are personally fans of Wellexir that are available in the Plugin zone.
Wellexir Flow Hydration drink is developed by leading nutrition experts in collaboration with experienced athletes for optimized absorption of liquid and minerals during physical exercise or under warm conditions.
Enjoy Wellexir Flow whenever you want to give your body some extra water and electrolytes or if you wish to upgrade your water with a bit of a flavor for a low-calorie sports drink. Wellexir is not just electrolytes, but also contains your daily value of vitamin C and B12 and probiotics for gut health.
Some of the symptoms of low electrolytes can be muscle twitching and muscle cramps, increased thirst, poor endurance, salt craving and irritability.
It is also recommended to listen to your body's signals and drink water when you feel thirsty.
If you have questions or want to be sure, we recommend you contact a dietitian who can do the blood samples for a more detailed guidance that fits your individual needs.
