Participants were in their 40s or 50s when data collection started in 1987, and their average age at the last assessment was 76 throughout the study duration.
You may already be aware of the significance of appropriate hydration for regular bodily processes like controlling body temperature and preserving skin health.
However, that’s not all there is to hydration. Drinking enough water is also linked to a significantly lower risk of contracting chronic diseases, a lower risk of dying young, or a lower risk of biologically being older than your chronological age, according to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that was released in the journal eBioMedicine.
“The results suggest that proper hydration may slow down aging and prolong a disease-free life,” said study author Natalia Dmitrieva, a researcher in the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a division of NIH, in a news release.
A significant problem of preventive medicine, according to the study’s authors, is figuring out what preventive interventions can slow down the ageing process. That’s because as the global population increasingly ages, an epidemic of “age-dependent chronic diseases” is rising.
Prolonging a healthy life span might have a greater positive impact on quality of life and health care expenses than simply treating disorders.
On the basis of earlier similar research in mice, the authors hypothesised that maintaining optimum hydration would slow down the ageing process.
According to the latest study, those investigations found that mice subjected to lifetime water restriction had their serum sodium levels increase by 5 millimoles per litre and their life spans cut by six months, which is equivalent to around 15 years in humans.
When we drink fewer fluids, our blood’s level of serum sodium rises.
The research team discovered that adults with serum sodium levels at the higher end of the normal range, which is 135 to 146 milliequivalents per litre (mEq/L), had worse health outcomes than those at the lower end of the range using health data gathered over 30 years from 11,255 Black and White adults as part of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study.
Participants were in their 40s or 50s when data collection started in 1987, and their average age at the last assessment was 76 throughout the study duration.
Comparing participants with levels between 137 and 142 mEq/L, adults with levels over that range had a 10% to 15% higher likelihood of being biologically older than their chronological age. The participants who were at a higher risk of ageing more quickly also had a 64% higher risk of contracting chronic illnesses such diabetes, dementia, peripheral artery disease, heart failure, stroke, atrial fibrillation, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Additionally, those with levels above 144 mEq/L had a 50% increased risk of biological ageing and a 21% increased risk of premature death. On the other hand, adults with serum sodium concentrations between 138 and 140 mEq/L had the lowest chance of contracting a chronic illness.
The performance of many organ systems and functions, including those related to the respiratory, metabolic, immunological, and inflammatory systems, was measured using biomarkers to assess biological age.
Low serum sodium levels also increased the risk of disease, early mortality, and rapid ageing; high serum sodium levels were not the sole factor linked with these outcomes.
Consuming water, other liquids, including fruits and vegetables with a high water content affects our serum sodium levels.
According to the authors, this result is consistent with earlier studies showing increased mortality and cardiovascular disease in persons with low regular salt levels, which has been linked to illnesses causing electrolyte imbalances.
The study followed people for a long time, but the results, according to the authors, do not establish a causal link between serum sodium levels and these health consequences. The findings can aid doctors in identifying and advising patients at risk, they continued, but more research is required.
“People whose serum sodium is 142 mEq/L or higher would benefit from evaluation of their fluid intake,” Dmitrieva said.
The authors of the new research highlighted a number of studies that found that around half of people globally do not consume the recommended amount of total water each day.
“On the global level, this can have a big impact,” Dmitrieva said in the news 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.”
