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Tuesday 1pm - 6:30pm Wednesday 1pm - 5:30pm Friday 9:30am - 3:30pm Saturday 9am - 2pm

https://maplebrookacupuncture.com/

Maplebrook Acupuncture, 6703 E 81st Street Ste J, Tulsa, OK (2025)

08/01/2025

Soaking It Up

Many factors affect how quickly the body takes fluids consumed in food and beverages. Water absorption, which occurs mainly in the small intestine, is important for everyone but may be particularly of interest to athletes wondering how much (and what) to drink before, during, and after various levels of energy expenditure.

Whether we absorb the water from fluids we consume depends on our gastric emptying rate, or how fast fluid leaves the stomach. Gastric emptying rate is a function of several things, including the volume of fluid in the stomach, the calories in that fluid, and the body’s immediate energy expenditure.

Following are some factors to consider when seeking to speed up gastric emptying rate and get fluids to the body parts that need them most.
Source: AFAA

07/23/2025

Hydration: Through the Lens of Fitness and Health

The Science of Hydration

Dehydration leads to increased production of urea (a crystalline compound in urine), suggesting that water deprivation is accompanied by body tissue catabolism (breakdown). Chronic hypohydration appears to increase catabolism even when dietary protein needs are met (Kavouras & Anastasiou, 2010; Lang et al., 2017; Stookey et al., 2013).
There is evidence that those with persistently low body water are at higher risk of serious chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, kidney disease and metabolic syndrome (abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension and persistent inflammation). AVP apparently alters liver glucose production and its breakdown of stored glycogen, while also impairing insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity (Qian, 2018).
In people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, low TBW deteriorates glucose regulation. Diabetes is already a challenge to TBW because excess glucose in the blood acts as an osmolyte, pulling water from cells to counteract the higher osmotic pressure in the ECF. The kidney glucose transporters become saturated, so glucose is lost in the urine, pulling excess water with it. Thus, the water never gets to the ICF, where the thirst was triggered—hence, the diabetes symptoms of excessive thirst (triggered by cellular dehydration) and large volumes of urine (following glucose loss in the urine). Although it may seem counterintuitive (given the excessive urine production), restricting water will only exacerbate the problem for people with diabetes. Blood glucose clearly needs to be controlled, but optimal hydration will help the body better manage the condition overall. A broad range of other diseases are also associated with markers of hypohydration: heart failure, vascular dementia, cognitive impairment, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, and premature mortality (Lang et al., 2017). Obviously, many of these illnesses are multifactorial, and association is not causation.

Nonetheless, those are heady concerns for a substance that, until recently, didn’t even figure into nutrition recommendations. Here’s the good news: of all the ills associated with our underactive, overfed, modern lives, hypohydration has an inexpensive, uncomplicated fix. In a 2016 study, people with low to moderate fluid intakes who increased their water consumption over as little as 6 weeks saw a nearly 25% drop in circulating copeptin, a marker of AVP associated with low TBW (Lemetais et al., 2017). Study participants consumed either 50%–80% or 80%–120% of fluid intake recommended by the European Food Safety Authority, and results were similar for both groups. These recommendations are lower than those from the National Academy of Medicine. For adults, EFSA recommends water intakes of 2.5 L/day for men and 2.0 L/day for women that’s 1.2 L and 0.7 L less, respectively, than the National Academy of Medicine suggests (EFSA, 2017; Kavouras & Anastasiou, 2010).

Source: AFAA

07/19/2025

A Little Low on Water?

While occasional mild hypohydration is not a problem, being chronically underhydrated may be a threat to long-term health and well-being. Low TBW keeps the RAAS in a constant state of activity, with high circulating levels of the hormone cortisol. This suggests an overstimulation of the body’s stress response system. In terms of exercise, fluid is important not just for aerobic performance but also for maintaining optimum muscle tissue.
Easy Ways to Check Hydration Without Lab Work
There are several ways to gauge hydration levels without doing lab work: They involve measures that are easy to check at home, including thirst, body weight, and urine volume and color.

Think About Thirst
First thing in the morning, before exercising and before eating or drinking anything, assess your thirst on a scale of 1–9 (with 1 being “not thirsty at all” and 9 being “thirstiest I’ve ever been”). If you feel “very thirsty,” chances are good that you are down about 2% of body weight, meaning you’re mildly dehydrated. This thirst perception rating can serve as a good baseline throughout the day (Armstrong et al., 2014).

Step On A Scale
Unless you are actively losing or gaining weight, most day-to-day variations in weight are from fluctuations in total body water. To establish a baseline, weigh yourself n**e, first thing in the morning after using the bathroom, 3 days in a row. The average of these three weights is a pretty good representation of your weight. Keep a record of this number and use it for comparison with your post-workout weight. Then rehydrate accordingly.

Caveat: This is not a good gauge in the days after a high salt intake, which will cause fluid retention that does not correspond with good hydration. A sudden excess of water is eliminated very rapidly, within hours of consumption, but excess sodium takes days to be removed, demonstrating that these mechanisms operate on different time frames (Bie & Evans, 2016).
Consider Your Output

No one expects you to measure urine output (though you can if you want to), but if you don’t need to urinate at least every 3 hours or so, you probably aren’t hydrated. Urine color can also help you assess your hydration level. A pale-yellow color indicates good hydration, and a darker, sunflower-yellow color shows normal hydration or slight dehydration. If the color shifts to a mustardy or brownish color, you are exhibiting a sign of dehydration (see the urine color chart below).

Caveat: Many things can affect urine color, including drinking a large quantity of water soon before urinating (which can lighten it) or taking B vitamins (which can darken it). Using at least two methods to gauge hydration will give you a clearer picture of where you stand.
Source: AFAA

07/16/2025

The Body's Balancing Act

The body’s fluid-to-electrolyte balance—osmolality—is regulated by the renin-aldosterone-angiotensin system (RAAS). This controller, involving the brain, the kidneys and sensors throughout the body, is tasked with ensuring that we have enough Na+ to sustain cellular function and fluid balance. This, in turn, drives blood volume and therefore blood pressure.

When blood osmolality increases above normal (285–295 milliosmoles/kg, or mOsmol/kg), it is detected by osmoreceptors in the brain. This triggers pituitary to release arginine vasopressin (formerly known as antidiuretic hormone). AVP triggers reabsorption of water by the kidneys, making urine more concentrated. It also results in constriction of blood vessels to maintain blood pressure and elicits feelings of thirst, inducing fluid intake. In conjunction, pressure-sensitive receptors in blood vessels (called baroreceptors) sense the decreased blood volume and respond by triggering the release of aldosterone, a corticosteroid.

Aldosterone increases Na+ reabsorption by the kidneys (and because water follows salt, this enhances water retention). Aldosterone also stimulates Na+ appetite, which further increases thirst (Boone & Deen, 2008; Enhörning & Melander, 2018; Kavouras & Anastasiou, 2010; Roumelioti et al., 2018). When blood osmolality decreases or there is a large influx of water from the small intestine, AVP drops, thirst disappears, and the kidneys produce a greater volume of diluted urine.
Source: AFAA

06/30/2025

What About Electrolytes?

Maintenance of TBW depends not only on fluid ingestion but also on electrolyte concentration gradients in the fluid compartments. Electrolytes are the electrically charged particles (anions or cations) from salts dissolved in water, and they are important for both rehydration (fluid replacement) and the capacity to hold onto a higher level of body water. Predominant osmolytes in the ICF and ECF are the electrolytes potassium (K+) and sodium (Na+), respectively. Sodium exerts the strongest influence because of its role as primary driver of volume in the extracellular compartments (Leiper, 2015).

This information is particularly important when working with endurance athletes, because Na+ is a primary component of sweat, and people with a faster sweat rate will lose more sodium in each exercise session (Armstrong et al., 2009). Fluid to form sweat is drawn from blood plasma, so exercise of longer duration poses a challenge to blood volume and viscosity. As plasma volume decreases, its tonicity increases, thus pulling water out of the body’s cells.
Most diets in developed countries supply sufficient sodium to retain ingested water and, of note to athletes, to prevent exertional cramps. If you have clients on sodium-restricted diets, they should initiate a discussion with their physician: In 2013, the National Academy of Medicine reported that there was a lack of conclusive scientific evidence of benefit (or harm) in reducing sodium consumption to previously recommended levels (Kong et al. 2016). If dietary Na+ is low or restricted, it may inhibit restoration and retention of ingested fluids, which can allow hypohydration to develop or continue. On the other hand, even athletes do not need excessive Na+ intake.
Source: AFAA

06/20/2025

Water, Water—Everywhere

Most water in the body resides in two types of compartments: intracellular (within the cells) and extracellular (outside the cells). The two primary extracellular compartments are the intravascular compartment, which contains plasma (the fluid component of blood), and the interstitial compartment, which contains any fluid not located in the body’s cells or plasma. Intracellular fluid (ICF) refers to water inside cells, and extracellular fluid (ECF) refers to water outside of cells (in the interstitium or plasma).

Because cell membranes are permeable to fluid via aquaporins (specialized water channels), fluid moves freely between the three compartments (intracellular, intravascular and interstitial). One cause of this is osmosis: In osmosis, water moves from areas of high fluid concentration to areas of low concentration in an attempt to balance the levels on both sides of the cell membrane. This movement is driven, in part, by the quantity of solutes (substances dissolved in the fluid) in each compartment. Solutes cannot move through cell membranes, but fluid can. During osmosis, water moves from areas of lower solute concentration to areas of greater concentration, shifting the amount of water on each side of the membrane. An area with a higher solute concentration cannot help but pull water into it, even if this creates other problems.

When equilibrated, the three compartments—think of them as buckets—hold the appropriate amounts of fluid. However, when one bucket experiences a loss of water volume or an increase in solute concentration, water from another bucket is more likely to pour into balance things out. This difference between solute concentrations on the two sides of a semipermeable membrane is called an osmotic gradient and it drives water flow between compartments.

Water moving into, or out of, the ICF may cause cells to shrink or expand. A little change in size is a small problem, but large shifts can trigger undesirable signaling cascades affecting metabolism, transport, hormone release, cell proliferation and programmed cell death (Guelinckx et al., 2016; Lang, 2007; Lang et al., 2017; Nishiyama & Kobori, 2018). Cells get ticked when they shrink or swell. Shrinkage of cells in the ICF is the consequence of chronic hypohydration, and you will soon see why it has been accused of health crimes.

While the rules of osmosis may seem cut and dried (fluid shifts until balance is achieved), the body is more complex than that: Certain parts of the body do a more important job than others, so they take priority when it comes to allocation of resources, including water.

Case in point: Plasma accounts for only 7% of TBW, while most of the body’s water—about 60%–70%—is found in intracellular fluid. However, adequate blood volume is critical to maintaining whole-body homeostasis. Plasma is, after all, the body’s crucial transporter of nutrients, waste, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. Viscous blood doesn’t flow as nicely and tends to clump. Lower blood volume (and thicker blood) means each organ system (heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, etc.) has to make do with less, making its job more difficult. Thus, the body prioritizes the intravascular compartment (containing plasma) at the expense of other fluid compartments.
One demonstration of this prioritization is that blood osmolality the balance of water to dissolved substances—remains remarkably consistent in people with widely different levels of habitual water intake. Thus, the intravascular compartment’s volume is maintained, but if enough fluid for this purpose is not provided by an external source (i.e., food or drink), the water has to come from somewhere within the body. This need can arise, for example, when “ad libitum” intake (fluid intake based on sensations of thirst or desire for liquid) is subject to “unconscious, involuntary dehydration,” where the individual drinks to satiety but does not overcome a water deficit (Stookey, Hamer, & Killilea, 2017).

Source: AFAA

06/18/2025

Yes, No, or Almost

If we stop thinking of hydration as a yes/no state, we can start considering the different levels of “almost” and why they matter. Technically speaking, dehydration is a 4% or greater drop in TBW, but a fluid loss as small as 2% of body mass will noticeably diminish both mental and physical function. Thanks to the adaptability of the human body, it’s easy for people to walk around in a state of mild underhydration (a loss of 1%–3% of TBW)—referred to as hypohydration—without drastic day-to-day consequences. However, the acute adjustments that allow the body to compensate can also set us up for longer-term trouble.

Over the last decade or more, research has focused on the effects of chronic hypohydration and found that it may undermine overall health in ways big and small (Armstrong & Johnson, 2018; Benelam & Wyness, 2010; Enhörning et al., 2017; Horswill & Janas, 2011). It can negatively affect mood, cognition, metabolism, and kidney and cardiac health, while possibly having implications for immune function and cancer prognosis (Benton et al., 2016; Enhörning & Melander, 2018; Guelinckx et al., 2016; Melander, 2016; Perrier, 2017; Roumelioti et al., 2018). To really grasp how dehydration and hypohydration affect the body, it helps to look more closely at the physical processes involved. As with real estate, one of the first things to consider is “location, location, location".
Source: AFAA

06/14/2025

Special Considerations for Senior Populations

In people over the age of 65, TBW decreases. This is partly because water is dependent on fat-free mass, so age-related muscle loss, known as sarcopenia, causes TBW levels to drop. Osmo- and baroreceptors also become less sensitive in older adults, so thirst tends to be less pronounced, and the kidneys become less effective at concentrating urine. For these reasons, determining hydration status becomes more difficult in seniors than in younger age groups (Armstrong & Johnson, 2018; Guelinckx et al., 2016; Kavouras & Anastasiou, 2010; Roumelioti et al., 2018).

Water needs do vary from person to person. For instance, people with obesity require more fluids than non-obese populations, owing to metabolic rate, body surface area, and body weight (Chang et al., 2016). For context, however, the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) says that adequate fluid intakes for male and female adults are 3.7 L/day and 2.7 L/day, respectively, with 0.7 L and 0.5 L of that coming from food (Kavouras & Anastasiou, 2010). That’s a lot of fluid needed from beverages, and there is evidence that most Americans drink significantly less than this.

Source: AFAA

06/13/2025

Water by the Numbers
The amount of water in the body is referred to as total body water (TBW), and it represents 50%–60% of total body mass (or 70%–80% of fat-free body mass) (Horswill & Janas, 2011). (However, see “Special Considerations for Senior Populations,” below, for factors that can limit TBW in seniors.) TBW is in constant flux, with continual losses to respiration (as water v***r) and insensible sweat (perspiration that ev***rates before it is perceived), as well as intermittent losses to urine, f***s, and sensible (perceived) sweat. This output is about 2.5 L/day, with additional losses occurring from physical exertion or a hot environment. Also, variable (but more within an individual’s control) is the intake of fluids necessary to offset these losses. For most people, beverages account for about 60% of water intake, foods 30%. Metabolism contributes the final 10% as a byproduct of fat burning.
Source: AFAA

06/11/2025

Water: You Need It, Bad

Humans have an inherent, critical need for water. It is the medium in which all our metabolic reactions occur. It gives form to our cells, lubricates our joints and tissues, transports nutrients and waste, and dissipates excess body heat (Horswill & Janas, 2011; Lang, 2007).
Not only is regular fluid intake (particularly plain water) one of the easiest, cheapest health interventions ever, but it may also be one of the keys to optimizing health and well-being over the long term (Lang et al., 2017; Perrier, 2017; Perrier et al., 2014). Good hydration habits appear to have an outsized positive impact on renal, cardiovascular and endocrine health and may even play an important role in addressing obesity (Chang et al., 2016; Perrier et al., 2014). For example, in a study of people diagnosed with overweight or obesity, those who consumed 500 milliliters of water just before each daily meal lost 2 kilograms more over the 12-week study than did those on the same diet who did not imbibe before each meal. It seems that drinking water before meals reduced energy intake, improving hydration and weight loss in a single step (Horswill & Janas, 2011).
Finally, if that’s not enough to get you reaching for plain water, a recent study found that drinking 0.5 liter of water increased energy expenditure at rest by 30% for about 90 minutes (Horswill & Janas, 2011)!

06/10/2025

Introduction to Hydration

Being a little low on water is a bigger deal than most people think. Here’s research to prove it, plus a physiology review to explain why even a 2% deficit can affect mental and physical well-being. News flash! There’s a substance, available right now, that improves mood and cognition, reduces the risk of high blood pressure and high blood glucose, and possibly helps reduce body weight and overeating. There’s even compelling evidence that regular consumption decreases the burden of heart and kidney disease and, in fact, makes all types of cells better at their jobs (while ensuring that they die when it’s their time to go).

Will be continued.

AFAA

05/07/2025

Daily Meridians Circuit/ Meridian clock

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Tuesday	1pm - 6:30pm
Wednesday	1pm - 5:30pm
Friday	9:30am - 3:30pm
Saturday	9am - 2pm