* WHY MENTAL CONFUSIONS FROM 50 ??? *
Causes of: MENTAL CONFUSION IN THE THIRD AGE
By: Arnaldo Liechtenstein, physician.
Whenever I teach clinical medicine to students in the fourth year of medicine, I ask the following question:
What are the causes that cause mental confusion in the elderly?
Some risk: "Tumor in the head". I answer: No!
Others bet: "Early symptoms of Alzheimer's". I answer again: No!
With each refusal, the competition is scared.
And it is even more open-mouthed when I list the three most common responsible causes:
- uncontrolled diabetes;
- Urinary infection;
- Dehydration
It sounds like a joke, but it isn't. People over 50 constantly stop feeling thirsty and stop drinking fluids.
When no one is home to remind them to drink fluids, they quickly dehydrate. Dehydration is severe and affects the entire body. May cause abrupt mental confusion, drop in blood pressure, increased heart palpitations,
angina (chest pain), coma and even death.
I insist: No kidding!
At best, this forgetting to drink fluids begins at age 50, when we have just over 50% of the water we should have in our body. This is part of the natural aging process.
Therefore, people over 50 have a lower water reserve.
But there are more complications: still dehydrated, they don't feel like drinking water, because their internal balance mechanisms don't work very well.
Conclusion:
People over 50 years old dehydrate easily, not only because they have a smaller water supply, but also because they do not feel the lack of water in the body.
Although people over 50 look healthy, the performance of reactions and chemical functions damages your entire body.
So here are two alerts:
1) * Get into the habit of drinking liquids *. Liquids include water, juices, teas, coconut water, milk, soups, jam and water-rich fruits, such as watermelon, melon, peaches, pineapple; Orange and tangerine also work. The important thing is that, every two hours,
Drink some liquid. Remember this!
2) Alert for family members: constantly offer fluids to people over 50. At the same time, be aware of them.
When they realize that they are rejecting liquids and, from one day to the next, they are confused, irritated, breathless, showing lack of attention.
They are almost certainly recurrent symptoms of dehydration.
Arnaldo Liechtenstein (46), physician, is a general practitioner at Hospital das Clínicas and a collaborating professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (USP).
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