Drink plenty of water to maintain good hydration. Is it true for everyone?
I am sure that everyone of us are told to drink plenty of water all our lives.
Our human body is made up of plenty of water. If we do not drink enough water, we can not maintain good hydration.
Good hydration is very important to maintain blood pressure, skin glow and good kidney function.
Our body just can not function without adequate hydration. Reasons can by any number but the truth is that all of us should drink plenty of water to maintain good health.
However, this advice can not be given to everyone.
There are certainly people with different medical conditions that can get worse if this advice is given to them.
Certain diseases get worse when plenty of water is taken by those patients. Usually, this happens in elderly but even young adults can have certain conditions which when present should not be told to drink plenty of water.
One such condition is SIADH, Syndrome of inappropriate ADH. ADH is a hormone in the body which helps in managing hydration levels and there by it controls Sodium level.
In patients with this condition, the Sodium level is usually maintained at a much lower level than normal. This condition usually arises as a secondary condition to some other lung or brain condition. Even medications can cause this.
There are a lot of causes for this. But, the concept is that the Sodium level goes down further if patients with this condition are given wrong advice to drink plenty of water. These patients are told to follow Fluid Restriction which means they should not drink too much fluids in any form.
The other common group of patients who should not drink plenty of water is those with a condition called Congestive Heart Failure which in lay terms is weak heart.
This usually happens after heart attacks and is usually seen in older population but young people are not immune. These people developed fluid overload when wrongly advised to drink plenty of water.
They develop swelling in legs initially in most cases and it gradually gets worse leading to fluid accumulation in and around lungs causing shortness of breath. This can be life threatening.
So, bottom line is that one should refrain from telling everyone to drink plenty of water to keep good hydration there by helping in health. This is true in majority of cases but not true for everyone. Always take your own doctor’s opinion about this. The above are only two of the many conditions which preclude people from drinking plenty of water.
This is helpful for those of you whose parents have heart conditions as they need be careful with fluids.
I am not giving any health advice to any of you based on your health condition.
This is just for information and you should talk to your own doctor for your specific needs.