Harmony Hub Health
Functional Medicine, Hormone Health and Weight Loss with Michele Postol, CRNP
Harmony Hub Health
Hydrated or Just Wet? The Truth About Cellular Hydration
You can chug from the biggest water bottle on the planet and still be dehydrated. We unpack why real hydration is about getting water into your cells—and why minerals, osmosis, and aquaporins matter more than ounce counts. Michelle breaks down the difference between extracellular and intracellular water, then walks through the science of how sodium, potassium, chloride, and magnesium create the osmotic pull that lets water cross the cell membrane. If that mineral signal is weak, or if stress and inflammation slow aquaporin channels, water stalls outside the cell and you stay tired, foggy, and thirsty.
We dig into six root causes that quietly sabotage hydration: mineral depletion from stress, caffeine, alcohol, sweat, and meds; overconsuming plain water that dilutes electrolytes; blood sugar spikes that pull water out of cells; chronic stress that burns minerals and disrupts aldosterone; poor absorption from low stomach acid or gut inflammation; and medications that alter electrolyte balance. For each, we offer simple fixes—pair water with electrolytes, drink to thirst, stabilize glucose by pairing carbs with protein, support the nervous system, restore digestive capacity, and replace what medications deplete.
When oral strategies are not enough, we explain when wellness IV infusions can provide a fast, targeted reset by bypassing the gut and restoring fluid and electrolytes directly. But quick fixes are not the finish line. We share why hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) is our go-to tool for mapping intracellular mineral patterns over time, revealing sodium-potassium balance, magnesium status, calcium dominance, chronic loss trends, and toxic metals that block uptake. With a clear map, we personalize hydration so your cells learn to hold water again, and energy, clarity, and skin hydration follow naturally.
Ready to get water where it belongs—inside your cells? Subscribe for more root-cause wellness, share this episode with a friend who lives by their water bottle, and leave a review with your biggest hydration myth we should tackle next.
Find me at www.harmonyhubhealth.com
Email me at michele@harmonyhubhealth.com
Welcome to Harmony Hub Health, where my mission is to provide comprehensive, affordable, integrative care that addresses the root cause of health issues. At the Hub, the focus is on individual patient journeys. I strive to optimize health, vitality, and longevity, fostering a community where each person can thrive in body, mind, and spirit. So today I wanted to talk about hydration because I look at a lot of blood work recently, like a lot. And one thing I see over and over again across labs, symptoms and patterns is cellular dehydration. Um, not the you forgot to drink water dehydration, the kind where your labs, your energy, your skin, and nervous system are all quietly waving a red flag. So I'll ask during a visit um how much they drink, and I'll tell them that it looks like cellular dehydration. And almost immediately without fail, I'm shown a very proud, very colorful Stanley cup, usually with a look that says, oh, bless her heart, she must be confused. Then comes the line I can practically mouth along with them, but I fill it up twice. Um, sometimes with electrolytes, sometimes with great confidence. And that's when I know we're not talking about the same kind of hydration because here's the truth: no one is saying out loud. Owning a Stanley cup, even filling it up twice, does not mean your cells are hydrated. Hydration is not about the bottle, it's not about how often you refill it, it's not even about how much water you drink. Hydration is about whether the water can actually get inside your cells. And for a lot of people, despite the Stanley Cup, the refills, and the best intentions, it just can't. So I want to clear it up once and for all. Hydration is not about volume, it's about cellular access. And once you understand why water isn't getting into your cells, everything about hydration finally starts to make sense. But these Stanley cups, you know, they're the emotional support water bottle of modern wellness. They are massive, they're so expensive, and they've convinced an entire population that hydration is a sport. And yet, despite the Stanley Cup, I still hear people feeling dehydrated. About 60% of your body is water, but that water lives in different places. We have our extracellular fluid, this is outside the cell, this is in your blood and tissues, and then we have your intracellular fluids, this is inside the cell. This is where hydration actually matters. You can have plenty of water in your body and still be cellularly dehydrated. For hydration to count, water has to move from outside the cell and come into the cell. And that movement depends on two key things. One is osmosis, number two is aquaporins. And I'm going to break them both down in my nerdy language. So osmosis is how water knows where to go. And it follows one simple rule: water moves towards where there are more minerals. Think of minerals as magnets. Water follows the pool. The minerals that matter most for hydration are um sodium, potassium, chloride, and magnesium. If there are enough electrolytes inside the cell, water moves in to balance things out. If electrolytes are low, water stays outside the cell no matter how much you drink. This is why some people can drink constantly and still feel thirsty and feel like water goes right through them. You don't have a water problem, you have a mineral problem. Then we have our aquaporins. These are tiny doors that water uses. Even if minerals are present, water still needs a way to get into the cell. That's where aquaporens come in. Aquaporens are these tiny protein channels in the cell membrane, basically the little doors that let water pass into the cell. And what people don't know is aquaporens don't work well when the body is stressed. They become impaired by chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and mineral depletion. When aquaporens are sluggished or blocked, water just sits outside the cell. And this is why hydration issues often show up alongside fatigue and brain fog, hormone imbalances, metabolic dysfunction, and autoimmune conditions. It's the same system, same bottleneck. So the top main six reasons that I see people dehydrated and different ways to fix them. Let's go over these. Number one is mineral depletion. And this happens because stress, caffeine, alcohol, sweating, medications, and poor gut absorption all burns through minerals, especially your magnesium, sodium, and potassium. Without minerals, there's no osmotic signal. So water really has nowhere to go. That's what's happening inside the body. You can help it by replacing minerals intentionally, not just randomly. Um, you can stop fearing sodium when appropriate. Um, you can replete magnesium consistently or identify why minerals are being lost in the first place. That's what we do at Harmony Hub Health. Number two is just drinking too much plain water. Drinking large amounts of plain water without electrolytes further dilutes already low minerals. So you're filling your standing up with just plain water. It's just causing you to um urinate frequently. It can make you lightheaded, it can make you feel more fatigued, and you can feel more dehydrated after drinking water. How to help that would be to pair that water with some electrolytes, um, drink to thirst, not trends, and focused on mineral balance, not volume. Number three is that blood sugar is pulling water out of your cells. And glucose is osmotically active. When blood sugar goes up, water is pulled out of the cells and into the bloodstream, then flushed out by the kidneys. It's trying to lower that glucose. And you'll see this in the hospital. If you ever come to the hospital with really high blood sugar, the first thing they do is flood you with fluid. But inside your body, it makes um you feel thirsty constantly. It dries out your skin, it gives you headaches, and it makes you feel fatigued. So, how to help this one is stabilize blood sugar. You want to make sure you pair carbs with protein and you want to avoid hydrating during glucose spikes. Okay. Um, this is why a lot of diabetics are constantly thirsty and they're constantly drinking and they're constantly peeing. Okay. Number four is chronic stress because stress burns through magnesium and sodium and disrupts hormones like aldosterone that control fluid retention. So inside your body, your body literally cannot hold onto water. So we want to help that by replacing those stress-depleted minerals. Um, we need to support the nervous system and we need to understand that hydration is hormone dependent, not just intake dependent. Number five is going to be pork gut absorption, and this happens because low stomach acid or gut inflammation does prevent proper mineral absorption. And for the low stomach acid, I talk to a lot of people, they're constantly for years taking acid reducers or PPIs, thinking they have just heartburn. But you can take all the supplements you want. It's never going to make it into circulation when you don't have enough stomach acid, or your gut inflammation is so high that you can't absorb any minerals. So, what we do at Harmony Hub Health is support digestion. We heal gut inflammation, and then we stop assuming that intake equals absorption. All right. Number six is medications, and many medications alter electrolyte balance and fluid handling like diuretics, antidepressants, stimulants, those acid producers, and different blood pressure medications. And what happens inside the body is that there's chronic mineral loss, which causes chronic dehydration. So, how we help that is replace what's being depleted. We want to monitor hydration patterns intentionally and adjust strategy instead of guessing. Other things we like to do at Harmony Hub Health are wellness infusions. When hydration isn't working by mouth, then IV wellness infusions act as a strategic reset. They work because they bypass your gut, they deliver fluids and electrolytes directly into your circulation, and we can rapidly restore that osmotic balance. People often notice improved energy, less headaches, better mental clarity, and improved skin hydration after their wellness infusions. IVs can help fast, but by no means do we consider that the finish line. Because if you need IVs often, then there's a bigger question. You know, why aren't your minerals staying balanced? This is where most hydration advice stops and where the functional medicine actually starts. And I love to use the HTMA or the hair tissue mineral analysis. For me, this is the smartest tool for hydration. You know, it evaluates that intracellular mineral patterns over time, not just what's floating in your blood on a single day. And this matters because blood minerals are tightly regulated and cells can be depleted while your blood work and your serum looks normal. HTMA can show us that sodium to potassium balance. This is hydration and adrenal signaling. It can show that magnesium depletion. It can show calcium dominance, which causes that rigid, poorly hydrated cell. It can show chronic mineral loss patterns and the toxic metals that might be blocking your mineral uptake. So water follows minerals. And HTMA shows exactly where that signal is broken. What Harmony Hub Health does differently than just an infusion center or those spas that just give you a bag of fluid is we want to understand why hydration isn't working for you. We want to use wellness infusion strategically only when needed, and we want to correct mineral balance long term using that hair tissue mineral analysis. The goal is not endless IVs. The goal is teaching your cells how to hydrate themselves again. Because if hydration was just about water, you'd already feel amazing. You're drinking. But persistent dehydration means that either the osmosis isn't working properly, or maybe your aquaporins are impaired, or maybe your mineral balance is off. Wellness infusions supports the reset, but HTMA fixes the root cause. If this podcast is making you weirdly thirsty for more information, do you see what I did there? Then here's your sign book a functional medicine consult or your own hydration um appointment, and we can get water where it actually belongs inside your cells. You can visit me at www.harmonyhubhealth.com. You can email me at Michelle, that's M-I-C-H-E-L-E at harmonyhubhealth.com. You could even text us or call us at 410-575-4274. Come on over and call that number and check out my new AI assistant to tell me how that's working out. I just started that this weekend. Um but yeah, if you're ready to learn more, then I would love to talk with you. This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The content discussed reflects general wellness and functional medicine concepts and should not be considered personalized medical advice. Always consult with your qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine, supplements, medications, or treatment plan. Individual needs vary.