Bounties attract serious brainpower to the challenge.
Why?
People enjoy drinking water and do not trust hydration-boosting powders or electrolyte drinks due to their sugar contents, bad taste or unknown ingredients
The full bladder hurts - How many times did you wake up because you had to go to the toilet? Or felt that you need to hydrate yourself more, drank litres of water, just to visit the toilet more often?!
Researchers state that
the more water you drink, the faster the drink empties from your stomach and gets absorbed into the bloodstream
sugars, proteins and fat help to slow the emptying of fluid from the stomach and keep hydration happening over a longer period
sodium and potassium act like a sponge and hold onto the water in the body and resulting in less urine produced
low-sugar beverages are more hydrating than high-sugar beverages
The idea
Creating a water-based drink without any taste that you can safely drink before events that require your full attention and an empty bladder! The ingredients would be secret. The hydration test would come along to advise you how much you should drink.
How would it work?
The product would come in one formulation, along with an easy-to-use hydration test that would serve as a guide to how much you should drink.
Finding the best formulation
The ingredients of the water-based gel would be calculated based on many experiments on the existing drinks. The drinks would be tested for their ability to hydrate body and in what amount of time. The drinks that perform the best (quickest-to-hydrate and longest-hydration-effect would be the main points to observe). Based on these drinks, the formulation of the water-based liquid would be formed synthetically or naturally, boosted to perform better than all the drinks on the market and get tested on many participants. From the current standpoint, the novel drink would be similar to coconut water, currently the most hydrating drink. The main requirement would be that it remains tasteless.
Designing the fast hydration test
The test for hydration would come along with the drink. They could be in shape of:
a urine test strips printed on the drink label, that you can take off and use for home or toilet testing (example 1, example 2). included on the bottle cap, etc).
a saliva test strips printed on the label, that you can take off and quick perform testing on the site (example 1)
a skin pinch test that you can use with your smartphone app (input data or film a video) that would take care your age, skin care, smoking and cosmetic treatments to precisely calculate your current level of hydration and would come along with a detailed guide and user-friendly interface. It could also be sponsored by dermatologists or companies selling dermatological products.
Hydration test-based consumption of the drink
Based on the results of the test, you would be suggested on the amount of the drink you should consume at that moment to prevent running to the toilet in the middle of the meeting or waking up in the middle of the night to empty the bladder.
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General comments
Shubhankar Kulkarni2 years ago
I agree with the problem and your solution seems appropriate. Here are a few more things to keep in mind while developing the drink:
It should have close the zero calories.
It should not contain ingredients that elicit insulin or dopamine release. Continuous use of such substances will be detrimental to health and might disturb your sleep by keeping you awake.
Based on your description of the formulation, I am thinking something that forms bonds with the water molecules takes more time to get absorbed by the stomach. Therefore, we could look at substances that form lattices with water molecules or something like a jelly that retains water and the water molecules are only released when the binding substance is broken or dissolved. Or simply, remove the calorious substances from coconut water and use the rest as the drink.
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jnikola2 years ago
Shubhankar Kulkarni I agree with all the points. I would also like to add to the last point that my initial idea was to develop water-based gels or slowly dissolving water-based "gums" that can be swallowed and hydrate the organism for many hours without making you go to the toilet. I'll see if I have any ideas popping out in that field :)
Please leave the feedback on this idea
Shubhankar Kulkarni2 years ago
J. Nikola Yes, gels would be better than gums. I don't think gums store and release water. Gum increases salivation (which is basically the water present in the body) and does not contribute outside water.
jnikola Nov 11, 2022
Please leave the feedback on this idea
Please leave the feedback on this idea
Please leave the feedback on this idea