Compliance with the organism hydration rate through drinking or eating throughout life can reduce the risk of heart failure. This was proved scientists from the National Institute of Heart, Lungs and Blood in the United States. The results of the study that disclose the relationship between dehydration and age disease are presented at the Curdiology European Community Congress, briefly describes them in a press release on Eurekalert!.
Recommendations for daily fluid consumption range from 1.6 to 2.1 liters for women and from 2 to 3 liters for men, but the results of surveys show that many people do not even reach the lower limits. When people drink less liquid, serum sodium concentration increases. When the body is trying to maintain the level of hydration, the processes that contribute to the development of heart failure are activated.
Researchers checked if the sodium concentration in serum at middle age can serve as an indicator of the body’s hydration during the human life and predict the development of heart failure in 25 years. Experts also studied the connection between hydration and thickening walls of the main pump chamber of the heart (left ventricle), called left ventricular hypertrophy.
Analysis was held with the participation of 15,792 adults as part of the Aric (ATHEROSClerosis Risk in Communities). At the time of the start of the survey, the participants were from 44 to 66 years, and the condition of the body was tracked to age from 70 to 90 years during the four visits to doctors. Volunteers were divided into four groups depending on their average sodium concentration in serum during the first and second visits (conducted in the first three years): 135-139.5, 140-141.5, 142-143.5 and 144-146 mmol / l. Then, for each group, the researchers analyzed the proportion of people who have developed heart failure and left ventricular hypertrophy during the fifth visit (25 years later).
It turned out that a higher sodium concentration in the blood serum at middle age was associated with both heart failure and left ventricular hypertrophy. This connection was maintained when taking into account such third-party factors as age, blood pressure, kidney function, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, body mass index, floor and smoking status. The risk of left ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure at the age of 70 to 90 began to increase when sodium level in serum exceeded 142 mmol / l at middle age.