Page 3 - June 2023 Newsletter
P. 3
Stay Hydrated
Drink a glass of water first thing in
the morning before reaching
for coffee or tea.
Fill up a water bottle. Place it
on your desk while working
and bring it with you when
you leave your house.
Dress up your water. Squeeze
lime into sparkling water or
infuse regular H2O with fruit,
mint or lemon.
Make foods with high water
content, like watermelon, cu-
cumber and strawberries, a
regular part of your meals.
Monitor bathroom breaks. If you’re properly hydrated, you’ll likely need to use the restroom once every few hours.
Your urine should be clear or light yellow.
Why?
The brain is made up of about 75 percent water so not staying hydrated can affect how well it functions. Research
suggests that dehydration may impair cognitive performance, especially in older adults. Staying hydrated may help
reduce this risk.
cooling, but rather the evaporation process. It takes ener- treat overactive bladder. Certain antidepressants and
gy to evaporate sweat off the skin, and the energy source some blood pressure medicines can also hinder the body’s
in this equation is heat. So as sweat switches from liquid ability to cool itself — and experts say there are likely
to vapor, heat leaves your body and you start to cool many more that inflict this effect.
down.
Another disadvantage for older adults is heat’s impact on
But sweat glands become less effective with age. “They the heart. Hand in hand with sweating, the body releases
can’t pump out as much sweat as quickly,” says Daniel Van heat by increasing blood flow to the skin to push the heat
Durme, M.D., chief medical officer of the Florida State away from the core. This requires the heart to work hard-
University College of Medicine. er. “And if you have heart disease, that puts strain on an
already potentially weak heart,” Bernstein says. “So you
What’s more, several medications common among older see people during heat events having heart attacks, ar-
adults can interfere with how efficiently the body sweats rhythmias, strokes — there’s a big risk for that.”
or handles heat, Van Durme adds, including some antihis-
tamines (to ease allergy symptoms) and drugs used to JULY 2022 REPRINT.
