Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge and are essential to cellular functioning. Found in most bodily fluids, these minerals are lost through sweating and urination. This loss is multiplied when a person is under stress, has a poor diet, and/or consumes an excess of caffeine and alcohol. Electrolytes such as potassium, sodium, and magnesium help maintain the volume of water inside cells and blood vessels. Maintaining cell water volume promotes proper nerve and muscle function. [2,3,4]

 

Potassium
Americans consume too much sodium and not enough potassium and this is a public health concern. [5]

 

Potassium is essential for heart function and muscle contraction. Potassium, along with sodium, serves to maintain critical fluid balance within the body. It conserves calcium within the body and reduces urinary calcium loss. Potassium decreases bone breakdown and stimulates new bone formation. A decrease in blood pressure is associated with high dietary potassium. Additionally, potassium can positively influence vascular smooth muscle and sympathetic nervous system cell functions. [1]

 

This is why FUEL UP contains 6 times the amount of potassium as it does sodium.

 

Sodium Chloride
Sodium chloride is an essential compound our body uses to absorb and transport nutrients, maintain blood pressure, maintain the right balance of fluid, transmit nerve signals, and contract and relax muscles. [8]

 

Magnesium
Magnesium is a cofactor in more than 300 enzyme systems that regulate diverse biochemical reactions in the body, including protein synthesis, muscle and nerve function, blood glucose control, and blood pressure regulation.

Magnesium is required for energy production, oxidative phosphorylation, and glycolysis. It contributes to the structural development of bone and is required for the synthesis of DNA, RNA, and the antioxidant glutathione.

Magnesium also plays a role in the active transport of calcium and potassium ions across cell membranes, a process that is important to nerve impulse conduction, muscle contraction, and normal heart rhythm.9]

Antioxidants are substances that can prevent or slow damage to cells caused by free radicals (waste substances produced by cells). If the body is unable to process and remove free radicals efficiently, oxidative stress can result. Oxidative stress has been linked to heart disease, cancer, arthritis, stroke, respiratory diseases, immune deficiency, emphysema, Parkinson's disease, and other inflammatory or ischemic conditions. Antioxidants help neutralize free radicals in our bodies and protect against the cell damage that free radicals cause. [10]

Vitamin C
Vitamin C is needed by the body to form collagen and make skin, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels. It also uses this vitamin to repair and maintain cartilage, bones and teeth, to heal wounds and to form scar tissue. Vitamin C is a vital antioxidant that helps protect cells from damage caused by free radicals that we are exposed to in the environment such as air pollution, cigarette smoke and ultraviolet light from the sun. Vitamin C plays an important role in immune function. [11]

Vitamin E
Vitamin E functions mainly as an antioxidant to help protect cells from damage caused by free radicals. Vitamin E also helps protect eyesight. Vitamin E supplementation significantly enhances both cell-mediated and humoral immune functions in humans. [12]

Vitamin E is a fat­soluble antioxidant that stops the production free radicals when fat undergoes oxidation. [13]