Adequate hydration may slow biological aging, reduce disease risk
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Adults with elevated serum sodium in middle age, a marker of inadequate fluid intake, were more likely to be biologically older than their chronological age and develop chronic diseases compared with adequately hydrated adults, data show.
“There has been a shift in thinking about the roles of good hydration,” Natalia Dmitrieva, PhD, senior research scientist in the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the NHLBI, told Healio. “Traditionally, the focus has been on short-term effects of big water losses that occur, for example, during prolonged exercise or exposure to heat. In recent years, a growing number of epidemiological studies show links between poor hydration and adverse long-term health outcomes such as HF, diabetes and kidney function decline, and now also with chronic diseases in general and premature mortality.”
Dmitrieva and colleagues analyzed data from 15,752 middle-aged adults aged 45 to 66 years at baseline who participated in the ongoing Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study and were followed for 25 years. Researchers assessed serum sodium as a proxy for hydration habits and estimated the relative speed of aging by calculating biological age, using age-dependent biomarkers and assessing risk for chronic diseases and premature mortality.
Researchers found that a serum sodium of more than 142 mmol/L in middle age was associated with a 39% increased risk for developing chronic diseases (HR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.18-1.63), whereas a serum sodium of more than 144 mmol/L was associated with a 21% elevated risk for premature mortality (HR = 1.21; 95% CI, 1.02-1.45).
Participants with serum sodium of more than 142 mmol/L were up to twice as likely to be biologically older than their chronological age (OR = 1.5; 95% CI, 1.14-1.96). A higher biological age was associated with an increased risk for chronic diseases, including HF, dementia, chronic lung disease, stroke, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease and atrial fibrillation (HR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.5-1.93), as well as premature mortality (HR = 1.59; 95% CI, 1.39-1.83), according to the researchers.
Dmitrieva said people whose serum sodium is 142 mEq/L or higher would benefit from evaluation of their fluid intake..
“The links from the observational epidemiological studies need to be confirmed in interventional trials,” Dmitrieva told Healio. “The next step for this research would be to test whether improved hydration can indeed slow down the aging process and improve health outcomes.”
“On the global level, this can have a big impact,” Dmitrieva said in a press release. “Decreased body water content is the most common factor that increases serum sodium, which is why the results suggest that staying well hydrated may slow down the aging process and prevent or delay chronic disease.”
Perspective
Back to Top
These findings are in line with advice many people around the world received when they were young — drink six to eight glasses of water every day. For many years, that advice went in and out of vogue. This study does pass the common-sense test that staying well hydrated is probably a good idea. Whether doing that — or simply drinking whenever you are thirsty — makes a real difference is unclear. Where this can fall apart is with older adults or those with clinical or subclinical dementia, when a person can lose their sense of thirst. There, it is important to make the extra effort to ensure vulnerable people stay hydrated.
This analysis included middle-aged people aged 45 to 66 years, so dementia is likely not a major factor. The only way to prove this observational analysis is to conduct a proper randomized trial comparing different degrees of water intake. That would be inexpensive because water is inexpensive; however, dietary trials are notoriously difficult, and the cohort would need to be very large to see any measurable effect size.
As a standard part of a lab draw, physicians always get a sodium level, so if someone’s sodium level is off, a physician would act on it. If the sodium level is only in the high-normal range, I don’t know if a physician would necessarily act on that and try to include pushing water intake as part of an already busy clinic visit. From a layperson’s practical perspective, it makes sense to stay well-hydrated in life. Should you force yourself to drink even if you are not thirsty? I’m not sure I endorse that; however, in this peripandemic era when many people may work from home and live a more sedentary lifestyle, it is important not to lose track of staying well hydrated.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts