Altered Cemented Demented

Changed my layout a bit here and there. New song up: I Miss You by Incubus. Added a little Malaysian flag to the Mamula Moon icon, added the huge moon picture (cmon, tell me you didnt miss THAT one...) and changed everything to either white, black, grey/gray (which...?) or green. there. that's an update right? sheesh.


why does our body absorb water from isotonic drinks faster/easier than from plain H2O? This question plagued me for a while now. Found this online...



Water flows from hypotonic solutions to hypertonic ones.

hypertonic = contains more solute
hypotonic = less solute
isotonic = same solute

Surely adding more solutes therfore should actually impede the uptake of water?
Adding too much solute (such as drinking salt water) is dehydrating, as osmotic pressure draws water out of your body to try to dilute the salt in your stomach.

However, this isn’t the only thing at work here. Plain water causes bloating, suppresses thirst and stimulates urine output so is not retained efficiently. Not what you want if you are trying to get a high water intake. Hypertonic solutions (such as plain water) supress thirst because they quickly dilute the blood plasma, whereas drinks containing solute take longer to dilute as the solute is being absorbed at the same time, mainaining the levels in the blood.

The two main factors which control the speed that a drink is taken up by the body are:

The speed the liquid is emptied from the stomach
The rate that it is absorbed by the small intestine

Electrolytes in the solution (especially sodium and potassium) reduce urine output, empty the stomach quicky (so moves to the small intestine faster), promote absorbtion from the intestine and encourages fluid retention.

This is the reasoning behind isotonic drinks. They have the same/similar solute levels (~6% glucose along with electrolytes) in them in order to maximise both water and solute uptake for both rehydrating and giving you an energy boost from the solutes.


There there now... No need to thank me. Send me a cheque instead. I need some greens for Xbox360... Halo3 just came out!! GAhhhhAAHH!!!! *ehem*. Well... One way or another, I'll finish the fight. That's a promise.