Dehydration in the Elderly

27/02/2012 By Joe Cox

Through Office Water Coolers commendable campaigning for better hydration in offices and schools, there has been a tendency to emphasise the need for hydration in working age adults and energetic young children. Perhaps it is pertinent to stress the need to educate the elderly in our society about the health benefits of keeping hydrated throughout the day. This need becomes even greater and more urgent when we consider that older people are more susceptible to dehydration because of specific physiological changes taking place in their bodies due to ageing.

As you age your ability your ability to metabolite water changes as does the balance of fluids in your body. Many of these changes are driven by shifting hormone levels, including antidiuretic hormone as well as atrial natriuretic peptide, and aldosterone. By the age of 80 your total body water mass has decreased from 60% to 50% from when you were a young adult. These changes can often be maintained through proper hydration but problems occur when older people become ill and end up on diuretic or hypnotic medications. There is also the unavoidable challenge that it is harder to change the habits of elderly people, when compared to children or younger adults.

At the UK Bottled Water Conference on 10-11th November, held in Bath, some of these problems were addressed. The Natural Hydration Council pointed out the problems still faced by the industry and health professionals in educating younger and older people in our society about the necessity of proper hydration. “The elderly and children do not often ask for a drink and can be very dehydrated”, it concluded.

At Office Water Coolers we have long been championing the need for proper education around hydration from a young age, and treat it as a life skill that will eventually be taken into old age. Education must be inclusive for all though and especially for the most vulnerable in our society and those most at risk. Whilst we are keen to see a younger generation brought up understanding the benefits of maintaining a healthy hydrated lifestyle and then taking those lessons into old age with them, we must never forget the existing older generation, who were never privy to the kind of privileged education about as today’s youth are.

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