The effects of dehydration can be crippling to one’s good health and can lead to various health problems including thirst, headaches, dry mouth, fatigue, impaired cognition, and many more health complications.
Acute dehydration is a common problem for the elderly because they are highly susceptible due to the fact that they may have lost the ability to feel thirsty therefore do not realise that they are dehydrated.
Other reasons for the elderly being susceptible to dehydration include:
- Many of the elderly have kidneys that do not work as well as they used to;
- The importance of drinking fluids was not always understood as well as it is today, so many of the elderly do not realise that they need to hydrate regularly;
- Many elderly individuals take medications or diuretics that increase urine output and do not drink sufficient replacement liquids;
- Some of the elderly opt not to drink water because of incontinence; and
- Some of the elderly have are immobile with pain or have other physiological reasons that make it difficult to either get a drink of water for themselves or to hold a glass.
According to the National Institutes of Health, symptoms of acute or chronic dehydration in elderly individuals may include the following:
- A dry or sticky mouth
- Dark yellow or amber-coloured urine
- Inability to produce tears
- Lethargy
- Minimal or no urine output
- Sunken eyes
- Vomiting
- Diarrhoea
It is important that you keep an eye on elderly relatives and ensure that they are drinking sufficient fluids and do not display any of the above symptoms of dehydration. If you do notice any of these symptoms, it is important that you get them to drink water immediately and get their bodily fluids balanced again.
Should the dehydration be more severe, it may be necessary for the elderly person to be hospitalised and given fluids intravenously in order to quickly replenish the lost fluids before more damage is done.
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