Hello, my name is Jitka Vseteckova and I am Senior Lecturer in Health and social care
in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies
at The Open University.
As part of the Ageing Well series of mini lectures
we’ll be exploring how important it is, over our lifespan,
to maintain a well-balanced nutrition
and hydration
as well as a regular physical and social activity in the older age.
We explore how using this knowledge might facilitate selfmanagement
and delay the ageing processes
for as much as we can.
As we know we start ageing the moment we are born,
it demonstrates more significantly when we reach a certain age,
the usual benchmark being 65+,
but our ageing starts much much sooner, and the way ageing demonstrates when we are over 65
depends a lot on decisions, we have been making over our life span.
Today we’ll focus on hydration.
Ageing brings about changes in metabolic rate
and muscles, brain, liver, kidneys, and overall mobility.
All these changes affect how well
do on a daily basis in terms of hydration.
Also, our daily hydration (the amount of water, liquids we drink every day)
will affect further changes
and speed of these changes on the metabolic rate, liver and kidney function,
muscle function,
nervous system and overall feeling of wellbeing and mobility.
When we don’t drink enough:
• Metabolic rate decreases
– slowing further down metabolic processes in our body
(how fast we process food, drugs/medication
we are taking.
• Our, already, ageing liver and kidneys
suffer from insufficient hydration,
processing drugs / medication
is slowed down,
and we are more likely to suffer negative side effects of drugs we are taking
AND we risk
that the drugs were taking will have a further cumulative effect in our body…
• This is closely linking to how drugs are moving through our body. We NEED TO BE
concerned about how we can eliminate quickly all drugs from the system, as a
cumulation of drugs leads to many negative effects.
• And also, how the drugs take effect.
Ageing changes result in different responses to
the same amount of the same drugs we have been taking over our lifespan.
Drugs take longer to act and longer to clear out.
- This is in a relatively hydrated body, so
further dehydration makes all metabolic processes much slower,
prolonging the negative effects the drugs.
• This negatively influences our muscle
function and neural system functions …
this, in turn, increases our sedation,
we feel weaker, dizzier, wobblier and have higher risks of falls
and falls related injuries
– one of the main consequences here is immobility
and loss of independence in our lives.
• Dehydration long-term can cause memory loss
and other symptoms mimicking early signs of dementia or Alzheimer disease,
when drinking plenty these are usually reversible
(If picked up fast enough)
The strict minimum of water intake in our daily diet is 1.5 litres per day
(of course, if we are taking any diuretics, laxatives we need to drink more).
This is only to make sure the metabolic
processes (and there are many) can go ahead.
Ideally, this should be much closer to 2 litres per day
excluding coffee, tea, alcohol as these are dehydrating beverages
and have a further diuretic effect.
For each cup of coffee or
tea or alcohol, we would ideally have another glass of water.
Staying hydrated is good and very necessary
for our physical and mental wellbeing.
Please be mindful as we grow older,
we may also forget to drink, and our feeling of thirst decreases with increasing age so
please let others remind you to drink.
Drink when you are not thirsty and have a measure
of what you have drunk so far throughout the day.
If you have a water or water fountain near you,
please go and get a water cuppa!
Here’s to your good health 😊…
and thanks for watching!
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