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Hydration (Total Body Water)

Hydration is an approximately measurement of reserves of water on the human body, and a severe reduction in hydration from either no water intake or diuretic usage is known as dehydration. Some supplements are either diuretic or may promote water retention.

Kamal Patel
Research analysis led by Kamal Patel.
All content reviewed by the Examine.com Team. Published: Jul 5, 2013
Last Updated:

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Human Effect Matrix

The Human Effect Matrix looks at human studies (it excludes animal and in vitro studies) to tell you what supplements affect hydration (total body water)
Grade Level of Evidence
Robust research conducted with repeated double-blind clinical trials
Multiple studies where at least two are double-blind and placebo controlled
Single double-blind study or multiple cohort studies
Uncontrolled or observational studies only
Level of Evidence
? The amount of high quality evidence. The more evidence, the more we can trust the results.
Outcome Magnitude of effect
? The direction and size of the supplement's impact on each outcome. Some supplements can have an increasing effect, others have a decreasing effect, and others have no effect.
Consistency of research results
? Scientific research does not always agree. HIGH or VERY HIGH means that most of the scientific research agrees.
Notes
grade-a
Creatine
Notable Very High See all 9 studies
Appears to be quite notable due to the increase in water weight in skeletal muscle tissue following creatine supplementation.
grade-c
Alanylglutamine
- - See study
Parameters of hydration including water retention do not appear to be modified with alanylglutamine when compared to the free amino acids or water.
grade-c
Quercetin
- - See study
Hydration during exercise in the heat is unaffected by quercetin supplementation.

All comparative evidence is now gathered in our ​A-to-Z Supplement Reference.

The evidence for each separate supplement is still freely available ​here.
grade-c
Sodium Bicarbonate
 
grade-c
Trimethylglycine
 
grade-d
Marijuana
 
grade-d
Rooibos
 

This page is regularly updated, to include the most recently available clinical trial evidence.

Each member of our research team is required to have no conflicts of interest, including with supplement manufacturers, food companies, and industry funders. The team includes nutrition researchers, registered dietitians, physicians, and pharmacists. We have a strict editorial process.

This page features 0 references. All factual claims are followed by specifically-applicable references. Click here to see the full set of references for this page.

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