Generally, an adequate intake (AI) of fluid for older adults is defined as 2.0 L/day for women and 2.5 L/day for men [6, 9]. Assuming 20% of fluids come from eating foods, this means women need at least 1.6 L/day of drinks and men 2.0 L/day.
The elderly have a reduced capacity to excrete a water load, which means they are predisposed to water overload and hyponatremia. Furthermore, various neuroendocrine changes in the elderly affect fluid and electrolyte homeostasis.
Body function.
Your kidneys may not work as effectively with age, leading to a fluid imbalance in your body. Since your body has less water composition as you age, you become dehydrated much quicker than when you were younger.
Fluid imbalance can arise due to hypovolemia, normovolemia with maldistribution of fluid, and hypervolemia. Trauma is among the most frequent causes of hypovolemia, with its often profuse attendant blood loss. Another common cause is dehydration, which primarily entails loss of plasma rather than whole blood.
There are three types of dehydration: hypotonic or hyponatremic, hypertonic or hypernatremic, and isotonic or isonatremic.
Vital Signs
Weight: One of the most sensitive indicators of patient volume status changes is their body weight. Patient weight changes approximate a gold standard to determine fluid status.
One of the major barriers for inadequate fluid intake is physical inability, for eg, if it is difficult for an elderly person to reach a source of drinking water. A fear of frequent urination or a fear of urinating before reaching the toilet is another possible reason for reduced fluid intake.
While the pull of gravity could be to blame, edema in seniors could also be caused by or a sign of a much more serious underlying medical condition like: Congestive heart failure. Kidney damage or kidney disease. Liver disease.
Certain conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, or problems with your vision, thyroid, nerves, or blood vessels can cause dizziness and other balance problems.
How to prevent dehydration in older adults? Experts generally recommend that older adults consume at least 1.7 liters of fluid per 24 hours. This corresponds to 57.5 fluid ounces, or 7.1 cups.
Pedialyte. One of the best drinks for the elderly, Pedialyte is an advanced, medical-grade hydration formula. It contains electrolytes, namely potassium, sodium, and chloride to restore the electrolyte balance and prevent dehydration.
If you are mildly dehydrated, you often will start to feel better within 10 to 15 minutes of drinking water, a sports drink, or juice. For moderate dehydration, you typically will be treated with intravenous hydration in urgent care or the emergency room over the course of a few hours or a day.
You should aim for 6 to 8 glasses of fluid a day.
Encourage them to drink throughout the day.
Rather than consuming a large amount of fluids all at once, seniors should drink throughout the day. Create a schedule for drinking to stay on track; have a glass of water first thing in the morning, drink with every meal, etc.
If something upsets this balance, you may have too little water (dehydration) or too much water (overhydration). Some medicines, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, and liver or kidney problems can all upset your water balance. Treatment helps you to manage the imbalance.
Fluid Imbalance. Two types of fluid imbalances are excessive fluid volume (also referred to as hypervolemia) and deficient fluid volume (also referred to as hypovolemia).
Fluid imbalances on both ends of the spectrum may be a manifestation of poor kidney health. Edema, which occurs when the body retains too much fluid, commonly causes swelling and pain in the face, arms, legs, hands and feet.