Few adults drink enough water. And many of them, particularly in their later years, are killing themselves through dehydration.
The hypothalamus center of the brain controls how a person perceives thirst. For some reason, older people begin to fail to perceive they are thirsty and reject efforts to get them to drink more. This sends them on a downward spiral.
Lack of water — dehydration — creates thirst, fatigue, weakness, pain and loss of appetite and leads to a buildup of toxic acidity. It’s a long, slow process of decline. As it gets worse, it develops into headaches, loss of concentration, loss of balance, increased irritability and delirium.
When seniors begin to feel bad, they lose the motivation to get up and get a drink, not wanting to put out the effort and endure the increasing pain or subject themselves to expending the energy needed to go to the bathroom to relieve themselves. Troubles with incontinence also may play into their unwillingness to drink.
Since seniors take so many drugs, their dehydration is compounded, especially if they are taking antihistamines. Antihistamines block hydration, leading to acidic blood and the masking of pain. What we mistake as pain and disease is really chronic cellular dehydration.
Dehydration causes a buildup of acid waste, greatly contributing to the aging process. Dehydration combined with a lack of exercise and acid buildup in the tissues overloads the lymphatic system. Dehydration over time leads to chronic acid/alkaline imbalance (overacidity), causing chronic disease.
Low oxygen levels come with acidity. To contract an infection, our internal environment has to be acidic. Wouldn’t you guess that this is why some people develop colds and flu when others don’t in the same environment? The medical establishment is confusing symptoms with disease. Disease arises within and develops from an acid and dehydrated environment.
Overacidity (learn more) and dehydration are the basic causes of all sickness and disease. They are the root cause of aging.
Seniors, you should drink six to eight glasses of water a day, whether you think you are thirsty or not. You can also get water from drinking teas and fruit juices — but avoid those sweetened with high fructose corn syrup — and from eating fresh fruits and vegetables.
If you’re providing care for an elderly person and you have trouble getting him or her to drink enough, try these tips from Lifestyle Options:
- Use a closed-top container with a straw.
- Find a healthy drink that the elderly person actually enjoys. If it doesn’t taste good, it most likely will not be consumed. Besides water, provide fruit juices, herb teas and broth.
Provide plenty of high-water-content foods such as soups, Jell-O, yogurt, cottage cheese, pudding, fruits and vegetables (especially oranges, apples, grapes, any type of berry, watermelon, carrots and leafy vegetables).
