Water as an essential nutriment: the physiological basis of hydration

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 65; no. 7; p. 877
• Main Authors: Jéquier, E, Constant, F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.07.2011; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/699/317; 692/700/1518; Body weight; Clinical Nutrition; Cognitive ability; Dehydration; Drinking (Physiology); Drinking water; Epidemiology; Health aspects; Internal Medicine; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Nutrition; Physiological aspects; Public Health; response-to-letter-to-the-editor; France
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/ejcn.2011.41

In his letter, Dr Arnaud (Arnaud and Noakes, 2011) mentions that their study (Szinnai et al., 2005), carried out in healthy young volunteers, showed that an acute dehydration up to a level of 2.6% of body weight did not affect their cognitive-motor function. On the contrary, other authors (Ritz and Berrut, 2005; Shirreffs, 2005) showed that a mild dehydration can lead to a significant impairment in both cognitive function and physical performance. Furthermore, experimental acute dehydration in healthy volunteers, such as reported by Szinnai et al., may not be a valid model for severe chronic dehydration in elderly subjects. Therefore, the concept that severe dehydration affects the function of many systems and is a life-threatening condition is supported by many studies. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]