#611: Electrolyte Mythology: Wellness Marketing vs. Evidence - Zoë Rom & Kylee Van Horn

Yeah, and I think all of that will be laid out as we go through the topic of today, and we're gonna be discussing electrolytes in terms of many supplements and products, and the messaging around that, that has gone from early on some of the sports nutrition research, which we'll probably mention, but has now seeped into the, the public consciousness in, in some way.

If even people who are not interested in sports or training per se will have no doubt heard this on various podcasts related to health or optimization culture, et cetera.

And so maybe before we do get into that science, maybe I'll, I'll start with you, Zoe.

Can you give us just a, a quick overview of, for you, what does that current scene commercially look like of these various products related to electrolytes that we're now seeing? Some of that messaging, some of the beliefs that you have seen within the public consciousness that are almost taken as true by a lot of people who are coming across this information.

So broadly writ, the science is maybe a little less settled [laughs] than most of us might like, especially from an endurance sports perspective.

But because there's still some questions and there's still some different strains of thought in terms of how much sodium is ideal to maximize athletic performance, I feel like this sort of seed sows the seeds of doubt [laughs] in the culture.

And because athletes are a relatively small marketplace, right? Like, you have people who are actually trying to compete in sport, and Kiley and I kind of fall into that category.

Then you have, like, more amateur athletes and people generally interested in fitness, and then the broadest sort of top of the funnel is people who are vaguely interested in health, wellness, and optimization.

So if you, owning an electrolyte company, wanted to make as much money as possible, sure, you could sell a handful of electrolytes to serious athletes or gym-goers, or you could sell a ton of electrolytes to anyone who's ever been interested in health, fitness, longevity, and just feeling a little bit better at 2:30 in the afternoon.

So electrolytes, which are very much a thing that is essential to athletic performance, have been rebranded and co-opted by the wellness industry as this biohack, as, like, the thing you didn't know you needed.

And we can get into some of the underlying cultural mechanisms that make that narrative so compelling, but it's the perfect case study [laughs] for the wellness industry, as there is a grain of truth there.

Like, these things are important.

There is some stuff that's unknown, and into that information vacuum steps the wellness industry to say, "If you're not doing 1,000 milligrams of sodium, then there's no way that you will ever be able to be the productive, masculine keto man you always knew you could be."

And we'll certainly look at a variety of these different claims and some of where they come from, the origins, and this intertwining in many niches.

But maybe to take a step back and set the stage for everyone here, Kiley, when it comes to electrolytes and then this connection to hydration and performance, what are some of those basic things we should know about what electrolytes even are, and mechanistically, how are they connected to something like hydration or sports performance i- in the first place?

Yeah, so electrolytes are charged ions.

So it could be things like our sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium.

So oftentimes when we're looking at the wellness space, people will think of them as things you lose in your sweat when you're exercising.

Each individual electrolyte, though, is going to have different purposes or physiological purposes in our bodies.

When we're looking at it from a wellness and sports performance aspect, I feel like a lot of times it's paired in conjunction with hydration, so fluid balance in the body.

And when we start with the fluid balance piece, and then when we start to get into it more, there'll be claims like, "Oh, magnesium is going to stop all muscle cramps," or, "It's going to help your sleep," or, "It's going to give you energy." So it stems from maybe the fluid elec- fluid balance piece, and then it starts to get into all areas of health, I guess.

And so a lot of these charged electrolytes are then marketed as, like, the miracle health cure, I guess.

And that movement from that, that grain of truth that you've both outlined, that does exist, and they have physiological roles in the body.

There's potential applications for them.

And then suddenly, that can start to snowball, and we end up in some absurd places.