Simple. Like drinking a glass of water. Limiting the future risk of heart failure, or at least slowing down the path that leads to the weakness of the heart’s contraction force, is possible by remembering to drink enough water every day, and at all ages. as well as, of course, introducing liquids by eating, or preferring foods such as fruit and vegetables that are rich in water. To revive the importance of proper hydration in the long-term prevention of heart failure, which leads to the heart and does not support the body’s circulatory needs with due force and affects almost a million people in Italy, is an original study presented as a contribution to the congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
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The survey correlates in particular the sodium values, which tend to increase when drinking less, and precisely the intake of loiquids. The research, coordinated by Natalia Dmitrieva of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which is part of the NIH (National Institutes of Health) of Bethesda, starts from the analysis of just under 15,800 adults followed in the ARIC study (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) the subjects considered were from 44 to 66 years old at the time of recruitment and were evaluated in five visits up to the age of 70-90 years.
Participants were divided into four groups based on their average blood sodium concentration over the first two visits, conducted over the first three years. based on the values, they have been divided into four groups: 135-139.5, 140-141.5, 142-143.5 and 144-146 millimoles / liter. For each sodium group, the researchers then analyzed the percentage of people who developed heart failure and left ventricular hypertrophy at the fifth visit (25 years later).
What emerged? Higher levels of sodium in the blood were associated with both heart failure and the antechamber of this condition, i.e. hypertrophy of the left ventricle which in practice leads to thickening of the wall of the ventricle itself, after 25 years. the sodium values remained associated with those of the aforementioned conditions also considering the presence of classic risk factors for heart failure itself, such as age, possible hypertension, good functioning of the kidneys, cholesterol and glycemic levels, the possible habit of smoking and being overweight.
In particular, the risks of both left ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure at the age of 70-90 began to increase when blood sodium exceeded 142 millimoles per liter in middle age. “Our study suggests that maintaining good hydration can prevent or at least slow down the changes in the heart that lead to heart failure.” that we drink too little “.
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Generally, considering both liquids taken directly and those present in food, the recommendations range from 1.6 to 2.1 liters for women and 2 to 3 liters for men. But a lot of people don’t pick up on this threshold. Unfortunately, sodium represents a sort of “signal” of poor hydration. If you drink less, the sodium concentration in your blood increases. And as a response, the body is activated to conserve water, implementing a series of reactions that can facilitate the onset of decompensation.
According to Dmitrieva “the results suggest that good hydration throughout life can reduce the risk of developing left ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure.” But there is more: perhaps it is important that even normal sodium values, such as 142 millimoles per liter, could become a sort of alarm bell in the management of healthy adults.
Obviously, in this study we are talking about healthy people and future risk of heart failure. The global health situation must be monitored and managed by the specialist in a specific way when this sort of “fatigue” of the heart is now manifest.
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