How much water does our body need? “The recommended amount is about 2 liters a day for women and 2.5 liters for men”. But a large portion of the Italian population does not reach that amount. “Elderly people in particular, in over 40% of cases” do not reach the indicated ‘dose’, “with the risk of a negative impact on physical and cognitive performance, especially, but not only, in this population. Water is essential in all phases of life, from pregnancy and the first months of life”. This was stated by Graziano Onder, coordinator of the scientific secretariat of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, on the occasion of the presentation, today in Rome, of the first report prepared by the National Center for Water Safety (Censia) of the ISS.
“Water, on the other hand, is essential for the well-being of the body and for our health: it represents about 60% of our body weight and provides important contributions of mineral elements that our body is not able to synthesize”, adds Onder. Keeping well hydrated is essential for our health and even more so in the summer – we read in the recommendations of the ISS, focused on the summer season in which it invites us to “prevent dehydration” – when we tend to lose more liquids. Maintaining the water balance of our body is essential, as water plays a crucial role because it constitutes body fluids, as well as the means to transport nourishment to the organs and eliminate waste. The intake of liquids, avoiding or at least limiting the consumption of sugary and alcoholic drinks, must increase on hot days, when working or doing physical activity.
Dehydration can be dangerous. In fact, in a dehydrated body the sweating mechanism is blocked to save the water remaining in the body, but the lack of sweat production causes organic overheating with negative repercussions on the hypothalamic thermo-regulatory center (heat stroke). Poor hydration in the initial phases causes slight imbalances from a neurological and physical point of view, decreasing the level of our intellectual and physical performance, and can therefore determine exhaustion, nausea and muscle cramps. Drinking water must therefore become a frequent habit that anticipates the feeling of thirst. In fact, the sensation of thirst occurs already when the body is in the dehydration phase, especially for the elderly and children, who feel much less the stimulus to drink, or even for adults during water sports such as swimming, as the ‘immersion reflex’ inhibits the mechanisms that activate the signal of the body’s need to drink.
#Onder #ISS #drink #liters #water #day #elderly #people
