You probably already know that water is crucial for basic biological processes such as controlling temperature and keeping skin healthy.
The National Institutes of Health published a study Monday in the journal Biomedicine that found that people who drank the recommended amount of water per day had a significantly lower risk of developing chronic disease, an early death rate, and a biological age older than their chronological age. age.
Results “indicate that proper hydration can delay aging and prolong disease-free life,” said the study’s author Natalia Dmitrievaa researcher in the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the NIH.
The study’s authors call it a “major problem of preventive medicine” to find out what types of preventive interventions can slow the aging process. As the world’s population ages rapidly, “age-related chronic diseases” are spreading like wildfire.
In addition to reducing healthcare expenditure, increasing the average healthy lifespan also improves quality of life. Following similar studies in mice, the scientists hypothesized that maintaining an adequate level of body fluid intake could slow down the aging process.
For example, in mice, chronic water deprivation led to an increase in serum sodium of 5 millimoles per liter and a shortened lifespan of 6 months, equivalent to about 15 years in humans. Reducing fluid intake leads to a rise in serum sodium, which can be tested in the blood.
Adults with serum sodium levels at the top of the normal range, which is 135 to 146 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L), had worse health outcomes than those at the bottom of the range, the researchers found using data collected over 30 years. . year of 11,255 black and white adults in the Risk of atherosclerosis in Community Studies, or ARIC.
The participants were in their 40s and 50s when data collection began in 1987, and by the time of the last evaluation (when they were 76 years old on average) the study had ended. For adults, the risk of being biologically older than their chronological age increased by 10% to 15% for those with levels above 142 mEq/L compared to those in the 137-142 mEq/L range.
More than twice as many people at higher risk of rapid aging also had a 64% higher risk of chronic conditions such as heart failure, stroke, atrial fibrillation, peripheral arterial disease, chronic lung disease, diabetes and dementia.
People with levels above 144 mEq/L were also at greater risk of biological aging (by 50%) and dying at a younger age (21%). However, the risk of developing a chronic disease appeared to be lowest in adults with a serum sodium level between 138 and 140 mEq/L. The participants’ water intake was not recorded in the study.
Observational evidence from this study “reinforces the potential long-term benefits of improved hydration on reductions in long-term health outcomes, including mortality,” Dr. Howard Sesso, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
However, Sesso was not involved in the investigation. But, as Sesso noted, “it would have been interesting to combine their definition of hydration, based solely on blood salt levels, with real water intake data from the ARIC cohort.”
Biomarkers that evaluate the functioning of various organs and functions, such as those involved in cardiovascular health, kidney health, lung health, metabolic health, immunity and inflammation, were used to calculate biological age.
In addition to the fact that high serum sodium levels are associated with an increased risk of disease, premature death and accelerated aging, low serum sodium levels have also been found to increase this risk.
Low normal sodium levels are associated with an increased risk of death and cardiovascular disease, which the authors attribute to electrolyte imbalance conditions.
Although this study looked at subjects over a longer period of time, the researchers concluded that there was no evidence of a causal relationship between elevated blood salt levels and the above health problems.
They noted that more research was needed, but that the preliminary results could help clinicians guide patients at risk. Fluid consumption assessment is recommended for those with a serum sodium of 142 mEq/L or higher, as reported by Dmitrieva.
Accelerated aging “is a complicated idea that we’re just beginning to understand,” Sesso said, noting that it wasn’t thoroughly explored in the study. According to Sesso, “there are two essential reasons behind this”.
True, the researchers “relied on a combination of 15 measures of accelerated aging,” but this is just one of many categories on which there is no consensus. Second, we can’t determine what caused it because their data on hydration and accelerated aging was a static picture.
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