Don't wait until you are thirsty to drink water
For the elderly, they may not feel obvious thirst even when dehydrated. When you feel dry mouth and tongue, it means you are slightly dehydrated.
Experts recommend that people over 60 years old should proactively drink water and make sure to drink about 1,500 ml of water per day, divided into many small sips to avoid drinking too much water at the same time.
Do not use soft drinks instead of boiling water
Many elderly people prefer to drink soft drinks, fruit juices, and even use functional drinks instead of water.
Most of these drinks contain a certain amount of sugar and artificial sweeteners, which can quickly spike blood sugar levels. Long-term use of these ingredients can also affect pancreatic function. Therefore, drinking boiled water is the safest.
Do not drink cold water on an empty stomach in the morning
Many elderly people have the habit of drinking a large glass of cold water after waking up in the morning, believing that it can clean the intestines and detoxify. In fact, this is an extremely unscientific approach.
Drinking cold water on an empty stomach can irritate the stomach and intestines, and can even cause a sudden drop in blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, or hypoglycemia.
How to do it properly: Sit at the edge of the bed and move slowly for a few minutes when you wake up in the morning, then drink about 200 ml of warm water in small sips.
Do not drink a lot of water before going to bed
Drinking too much water in the evening can easily lead to frequent waking up at night to urinate, affecting the quality of sleep.
Drinking too much water in the evening for a long time will increase the burden on the heart, kidneys and affect metabolic function.
Skipping drinking water in hot weather
In the summer or in high temperatures, the elderly are susceptible to dehydration due to sweating, many people are still not proactive in supplementing water, easily leading to heatstroke, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and other problems.
In hot weather, you should increase your water intake appropriately to supplement water and trace elements in time.
