One small thing can add years to your life, experts say

[reader]

From CNN Health

What are you focusing on in the new year to improve your health? Regular exercise, of course, is a proven winner, as is eating plant-based meals. Getting more high-quality sleep, reducing stress, limiting alcohol and connecting with other people in meaningful ways are also key ways to boost well-being.

However, there is one behavior change often overlooked when we think about improving our health in the new year: hydration. Water is the elixir of life, but few people make drinking enough a priority.

Yet it’s so easy — there are no gyms to join, no meals to prepare, no need to scour the internet for a tasty mocktail — and experts say water’s benefits are almost too numerous to mention. Drinking plenty of water can improve blood pressure, diabetes, joint, gut and kidney health as well as ease migraines and boost the glow of your skin, among other benefits.

“Staying optimally hydrated is a relatively easy lifestyle modification with potentially significant benefit: a longer disease-free life,” said Natalia Dmitrieva, a research scientist in the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

How can you add this one small thing to your daily life? Attach drinking a full glass of water to other key routines you do without thinking.

Coffee or tea drinker? While you wait for your coffee to perk or your tea kettle to whistle, fill a glass with water (add ice if you prefer, like me) and drink it down while you wait.

Continues at

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/05/health/drinking-water-wellness/index.html

[unicorn]

On 1/5/2025 at 1:39 PM, reader said:

... Drinking plenty of water can improve blood pressure, diabetes, joint, gut and kidney health as well as ease migraines and boost the glow of your skin, among other benefits...

Not to discourage anyone from drinking plenty of water, but the science is lacking in that statement (though obviously hydration is good for the kidneys and helps prevent kidney stones). 

[Moses]

2 hours ago, unicorn said:

helps prevent kidney stones

... or creates kidney stones. Depends on minerals in water.

Even with water you have to be very careful.

I am surprised by people: when you need to repair your house, install an air conditioner or fix a switch, people call in specialists, although a switch is just a switch, an air conditioner is a piece of plastic with a small amount of copper pipes and electronics inside.

But when the conversation turns to your own body and health, they follow the unfounded advice of people they don’t know, and whose advice could have been published simply because the editors needed to take up empty space on the page or show that the editors care about the readers.

Any and all actions with your own health or body should begin with a visit to the doctor and tests.

It is common knowledge that the average water consumption of an adult should be 2-2.5 liters per day. But this is an average value. And with average values, everything is not simple - in the hospital, one patient is lying in a fever of +40C, the second is already cooling off in the morgue, but the average temperature in the hospital is +36.6C.

Water can be very different. It can be acidic and alkaline, it can be carbonated and still. The amount of minerals in 1 liter can differ by tens of times. And what is useful for one person can slowly drive another to the grave.

With gastritis, carbonated water will slowly kill you. And water with slight alkalinity will heal. But if you are healthy, then the chances of getting kidney stones with alkaline water are several times higher than with acidic.

Speaking about Thailand - a country with a hot climate, we must remember that such a climate promotes increased sweating, and therefore the leaching of salts from the body. And if you drink a lot, you will contribute to their leaching.

And here it is time to remember that the expression "water is the basis of life" is a myth. The basis of life is not just water, but salty water - only such water conducts electricity - those very brain impulses that move our muscles. Drink distilled water for a week - and you will die.

This topic is for a post of several thousand words. So I'll cut myself short and finish with a few pieces of advice that have been scientifically proven to be true:
- when you want to change something in your lifestyle and the changes are related to your health, talk to your doctor
- do not drink "mineral", "table" and "medicinal" water unless your doctor has advised you to do so
- if you have night cramps, pay attention to water with a high magnesium content
- in supermarkets in Thailand there is special water with so-called electrolytes - it has an increased salt content, it is especially suitable for hot climates

[reader]

13 hours ago, Moses said:

- in supermarkets in Thailand there is special water with so-called electrolytes - it has an increased salt content, it is especially suitable for hot climates

It’s still 99.999% what?

WATER!

(But good example of AI 🙂)

[Moses]

7 hours ago, reader said:

But good example of AI

As I told already, when I posting AI, I mark it clearly, unlike Pattaya Mail. Above isn't AI's work.

7 hours ago, reader said:

99.999%

That why I wrote reply - you have no idea about water for life. If you will drink only 99.999% water, you will die very soon (assuming you not get minerals with food). Normal water is 99,5% - 99.0%, table water 97%-99%, therapeutical water may be even less than 90%.

By the way: I found electrolytes on 7-Eleven websites to whom it may be interesting. Those with ZERO mark have 0 calories. When I'm in Thailand, I drink 0.5L per day for to keep mineral balance.

[unicorn]

20 hours ago, Moses said:

...Any and all actions with your own health or body should begin with a visit to the doctor and tests.

...

I agree with most of what you said, in particular this statement, although I would qualify it by saying that one can also get good health information by following the advice of large national or international public health organizations and other organizers of reliable scientific data. I personally give my highest credibility to the United States Preventative Services Task Force, a group which really pores over all of the studies, and provides hard data. The World Health Organization also has reliable information, though more limited. The Cochrane organization from the UK also provides extremely reliable summaries of what's known in certain subjects. National professional societies also have evidence-based guidelines, although occasionally there may be a slight bias in interpreting data towards the societies. Let's just say I trust professional society guidelines 98%, and USPSTF, WHO, and Cochrane guidelines 99.8%. 

No question that it's far wiser to trust a competent physician than some information you might glean from social media or the lay press, especially sources quoted by Reader, since, as nice a guy as I'm sure he is, he tends to be overly trusting in some unreliable sources. That being said, it's a good idea to double-check any advice with what the world's experts have to say on the subject.

[unicorn]

1 hour ago, Moses said:

... I found electrolytes on 7-Eleven websites to whom it may be interesting. Those with ZERO mark have 0 calories...

The optimal rehydration drink depends on the purpose of the rehydration drink (i.e. reason for water loss). In particular, it matters if the water loss is rapid (such as exercise or diarrhea), or whether it's gradual, such as lounging on a beach chair in a hot tropical climate,  or a desert poolside party. Most of the research has been done on the optimalization of hydration for endurance exercises and for illnesses which result in water loss (particularly diarrhea). For these two categories, ingestion of beverages with carbohydrates and electrolytes has been shown to improve exercise performance and health outcomes (not zero-calorie electrolyte solutions). In the case of just having fun at the beach or poolside, perhaps snacking on chips and salsa (or a sandwich and fries), plain water is just fine, as there will be plenty of salt in most peoples' foods. While athletes and sick people benefit from getting as much liquid as possible into their blood vessels, this is probably not the case for people who are just walking around in a warm climate, where the resulting increase in blood pressure may be deleterious. Increasing BP is good for athletes and hypotensive diarrhea patients, but probably not for the average person. Here are some Cochrane-gathered data:

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/content?templateType=related&urlTitle=%2Fcentral%2Fdoi%2F10.1002%2Fcentral%2FCN-00119256&doi=10.1002%2Fcentral%2FCN-00119256&p_p_id=scolariscontentdisplay_WAR_scolariscontentdisplay&_scolariscontentdisplay_WAR_scolariscontentdisplay_action=related-content&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_mode=view&type=central&contentLanguage=

And an original study:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15438620802103155

[unicorn]

On the subject of professional organizations (as opposed to USPSTF, WHO, and Cochrane), the American Heart Association recommends hydrating with water, except for athletes and sick people:

https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/fitness/fitness-basics/staying-hydrated-staying-healthy

"...For most people, water is the best thing to drink to stay hydrated. Some foods can be a source of water, such as fruits and vegetables. Sports drinks with electrolytes may be useful for people doing high-intensity, vigorous exercise...". 

[Moses]

Just now, unicorn said:

Sports drinks with electrolytes may be useful for people doing high-intensity, vigorous exercise...". 

Sport drinks have a lot of sugar for sportsmen. That why I wrote only about ZERO.

When I wrote "salt" I didn't mean NaCl alone.
Mg, Fe, Ca, K, Zn are vital also

[reader]

Thought this was bottled water in Russia.

[unicorn]

On 1/11/2025 at 11:47 PM, Moses said:

Sport drinks have a lot of sugar for sportsmen. That why I wrote only about ZERO.

When I wrote "salt" I didn't mean NaCl alone.
Mg, Fe, Ca, K, Zn are vital also

That's fine, but there is no evidence that, in the absence of high-intensity exercise or gastrointestinal illness, these other minerals play any role in rehydration. It's quite difficult to get enough calcium in one's diet, so I do take calcium supplements with breakfast daily. Any dietary deficiencies may be replaced, but there's no reason to believe that these minerals will get the water in one's vascular system more quickly. 

[Moses]

On 1/12/2025 at 3:51 PM, reader said:

Thought this was bottled water in Russia.

This one is from Latvia, sorry. They bottle alcohol from Slovakia by license from Moscow.

You can't buy original "Stolichnaya" outside of Russia. Even in Russia you can buy it only in top shops - distillery is 130 years old, they still use old receipts and make below 1 mln of liters yearly.

 

And, by the way, you again bring here urban legend:
 

[reader]

All statistics are made up on the spot, to quote Vinapu 🙂

[Moses]

By the way: how to recognize original - this cursive should be in Cyrillic

  

[floridarob]

The first 2 stats are skewed, because of the number of Irish in NY & Boston 😁

[reader]

2 hours ago, floridarob said:

The first 2 stats are skewed, because of the number of Irish in NY & Boston 😁

If Whitey Bulger was still among us, you could be kneecapped for that.

[floridarob]

Remember I'm from Somerville, I'd be ok 😉

[unicorn]

On 1/16/2025 at 12:11 PM, Moses said:

...distillery is 130 years old, they still use old receipts ...

[unicorn]

On 1/16/2025 at 12:11 PM, Moses said:

....And, by the way, you again bring here urban legend:
 

One thing we can always count on with @Moses--strange, unattributed "facts", and profuse lying. According to World Atlas/Euromonitor, Russia is, by far, the country with the heaviest vodka drinkers. He simply re-numbered #6 as #1, #7 as #2, and so on.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-who-consume-the-most-vodka.html

Countries Who Consume the Most Vodka

Rank	Country	Vodka Consumption Per Person (Shots Per Month, Source: Euromonitor)
1	Russia	17.28
2	Poland	13.71
3	Ukraine	9.96
4	Bulgaria	5.26
5	Slovakia	4.13
6	United States of America	3.76
7	Ireland	3.38
8	Finland	3.19
9	United Kingdom	3.01
10	Hungary	2.63
11	Canada	2.63
12	Israel	2.25
13	Austria	1.69
14	Norway	1.68
15	Czech Republic	1.51

 

Всегда большой лжец.

[unicorn]

[daydreamer]

1 hour ago, unicorn said:

 

@Moses was not incorrect in using the word receipts.  It is an older form of the word recipe.  My grandmother used to refer to her "receipts" for cooking.

"Most of us know the difference between a recipe and a receipt" - from the following reference....... https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/recipe-vs-receipt-usage-word-history  

[unicorn]

3 hours ago, daydreamer said:

 

@Moses was not incorrect in using the word receipts.  It is an older form of the word recipe.  My grandmother used to refer to her "receipts" for cooking.

"Most of us know the difference between a recipe and a receipt" - from the following reference....... https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/recipe-vs-receipt-usage-word-history  

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/receipt

noun

1. a written acknowledgment of having received, or taken into one's possession, a specified amount of money, goods, etc.
2. receipts, the amount or quantity received:

   Economic austerity diminished the government’s tax receipts.

3. the act of receiving or the state of being received:

   We are in receipt of your letter requesting a copy of the report.

4. something that is received.
5. receipts, Slang. evidence or proof:

   There's no way he's a crook—show me the receipts!

6. Archaic. recipe.

    

   In other words, using the word as a synonym for recipe is archaic and no longer acceptable, but you might find it in old literature from the 19th Century or prior. The fact that the word used to be used in a certain way doesn't mean it will be understood in that sense today. 

[Moses]

6 hours ago, unicorn said:

strange, unattributed "facts", and profuse lying

It's not my fault that you are so behind the times and technology. These pictures are quite well marked with the GPT Chat logo and the AI links to specific sites where the information was taken from.

[Moses]

4 hours ago, daydreamer said:

was not incorrect in using the word receipts.  It is an older form of the word recipe.  My grandmother used to refer to her "receipts" for cooking

I still write your language better than you write mine.

[Moses]

6 hours ago, unicorn said:

According to World Atlas/Euromonitor, Russia is, by far, the country with the heaviest vodka drinkers. He simply re-numbered #6 as #1, #7 as #2, and so on.

You accuse others of lying, but you yourself are so carried away by refutations that you don’t even look at the publication dates.