The Nutrient: Hydration associated with healthy aging, Urine specific gravity, The Baddy speaks up
First time reading The Nutrient? Sign up here.
Research
Hydration associated with healthy aging
The Lancet
Researchers looked at blood levels of sodium as a proxy for hydration in 15,752 people. Next, they estimated participant's relative speed of aging which was based on their biological ages. This was new to me, and it involves 15 different biomarkers like blood pressure, CRP, and glucose. (As a cool aside, look at Figure 3 if you want to see which metrics they use so you can calculate your own biological age.) Lastly, they assessed participant's risk of chronic diseases and premature death.
The results show that people who stay hydrated have fewer chronic conditions like heart and lung disease. AND they live longer than those who are dehydrated. This suggests that if you "don't like water" then you need to drink it anyway.
People will argue all day on the internet about which diet is best, but everyone agrees that water is the best thing to drink, which is why it's part of the fundamentals of health.
Article
The New Rules of Hydration
Outside
"Want to get super specific? Use a pee stick, or reagent urine test strip, that can provide you with stats like urine pH, ketones, and protein and glucose levels. The measurement you should pay most attention to is specific gravity—or how concentrated your urine is. A measurement of 1.005 to 1.015 (compared to water’s measurement of 1) means you’re hydrated. Anything higher than that (Guest says 1.025 or above) means you’re dehydrated."
So how much water? I tell my patients that you know you're drinking enough water if you pee about every 2 hours you're awake. This article suggests that another way is to do a urinalysis (UA). Obviously this is extreme but I love the novelty. I've done many UAs and never once thought to do one on myself to see if I'm drinking enough water. I'll let you know next week how it goes.
Words of the week
"There's a stigma in this world that men can't talk - listen, if you're a man, and you've got weight on your shoulders ... please speak to someone, speak to anyone. Please, let's get rid of this stigma, and men - start talking."
–Paddy "The Baddy" Pimblett
I missed this article after the fight in July, but I think it's worth revisiting. It's interesting to hear what athletes say during the quick interview after a win, and this dude chose to use his 15 seconds of attention to encourage men to take control of their health.
Take care,
Dr. Adam
Member discussion