Do Electrolyte Drinks Even Work? We Ask the Doctor Who Wrote the Book on Hydration Health

Want to ward off the common cold with your hydration? Mix in this zingy peach-citrus flavored powder to your tap water: It includes five electrolytes as well as a blend of immunity power players vitamin C, D, and Zinc.

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The formula of these powders is based on the World Health Organization’s Oral Rehydration Solution (which includes sodium, potassium and chloride). Here those elements are jazzed up with organic ingredients including coconut water powder, a hint of stevia and fruit flavors berry pomegranate, lemon and grapefruit. The starter kit has two of each flavor.

Want a portable hydration mixer that's not going to tear open and spread powder everywhere? These little dissolvable tablets are easy to just pop into a water bottle on-the-go. And they come in light fruit flavors that are fortified with vitamins to support your immunity, sleep, sports performance or overall health.

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This drink sponsors the ultramarathons of Vacation Races, which means that people hardcore enough to run 50 miles through a national park find it thirst-quenching. We do, too, since we enjoyed the flavor of the orange-pineapple and ruby red grapefruit flavors in this low-sugar, vitamin-enhanced electrolyte beverage. The 14.10-ounce bag is enough for 40 servings.

Prefer your hydration more straightforward? This ready-to-chug water comes in a one-gallon jug and claims to have twice the regular concentration of electrolytes as the market’s leading electrolyte water, and has a pH of 9+, without the chalky taste of many alkaline waters.

Vanessa Hudgens is one of the investors behind this water, which has 300 mg of vitamin C-rich prickly pear cactus in every can. It’s 25 calories a can, unlike most waters in this category which have next to no calories, but we’re allowing that for sweet lovers who will notice the extra bump of stevia flavor. Wild prickly pair and ginger lime flavors are in the starter collection, which we appreciate being marketed, in addition to a hydration drink on its own, as both a low-calorie cocktail mixer and a hangover remedy.

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“I feel so much better when I drink this, I’m not dehydrated, my dizziness has gotten better and I have kicked my diet soda habit," says one reviewer. "Everything I want in a drink.” Low calorie, lightly sweetened, electrolytes, no aspartame or sucralose, with B vitamins for an afternoon boost. The mango clementine flavor is a nice variation on the usual citrus leanings of these drinks.

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With added enzymes from pineapple, papaya and on-trend superfood turmeric, this hydration powder seeks to help relieve muscle soreness and joint inflammation as a result of everyday activity. The enzymes also address gut health, so this does more than just hydrate you.

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With zero added sugar but boosted by marine algae trace minerals, this five-calorie water additive isn’t too sweet, but has a crisp citrus flavor.

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Company founder Dr. Blanca Lizaola-Mayo cautions not only vigorous exercisers, but also anyone who lives in a heated home in winter, about dehydration. “The indoor heat not only dries out your skin, but it can impact your fluid intake and lead to dehydration,” she says. The formula contains potassium, magnesium, citrate, chloride, sugars and zinc, and has a low-sugar, Keto-friendly sweetness, in the variety pack: berry, mango, lemon-lime and watermelon.

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Distributed by Anheuser Busch, consider this Big Water’s latest splashy entry into the electrolyte beverage category. It comes in six flavors including kiwi cucumber, peach mango and pomegranate grape and has calcium, magnesium, potassium and zinc, is infused with vitamin D, and has only 20 calories.

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