Tangential: I remember when I was a kid, adults always told me to drink more. Apparently I never drank enough, but I don't think it's ever caused me any problems. As an adult, I started drinking a lot of water - I drink easily 4 liters a day. Not even sure why. And now I always tell my kid to hydrate...

I remember the same. As I approach 50, I do notice that I feel much more tired and mentally foggy when I fail to remember my daily water bottles. I've had to develop specific routines that help me remember to fill/drink my water bottle which goes pretty much everywhere with me. For being such a necessity, it sure is an oddly hard thing to remember to do.

I think adults tell kid-me to drink more water was a way of trying to get me to just develop a habit with it, since they understood the seemingly paradoxical struggle of keeping hydrated at their age.

> As an adult, I started drinking a lot of water - I drink easily 4 liters a day. Not even sure why.

Excessive thirst and urination is a potential symptom of diabetes, might want to get that checked out.

I'm 56 now and I'd agree. I bike in the summer for exercise and I drink while on the go as needed. I always got a headache after exercising. A regular headache not a migraine (never had one).

My discovery was Pedialyte it's meant for children but it's like the adult version or Gatorade. I drink it before I exercise and also drink as needed. I feel normal no headaches not dehydrated.

edit: I also have hypothyroidism so my hypothalamus must also be crap at regulating my thirst maybe?

It's a big problem for the elderlies, it snowballs into serious issues. Don't feel thirst -> be dehydrated -> UTI -> hospital.

And having to be stay at a hospital for a length of time for any reason is very much Not Good for an elderly person. Other illnesses, muscle atrophy, disorientation, loneliness, cognitive decline...

You are correct.

Hospital -> Social home, then what you have said ... and then death.

As someone who has a relative working in a hospital and another in a social home (for the elderly, but these days we get 50 years olds with dementia which is crazy), they experience it.

It is not necessarily about dehydration, but that plays a huge role, too. Sometimes a simple yet unfortunate fall is enough.

If my mum wasn't English she would have shrivelled and died of dehydration many years ago. There's a lot of water in 15 daily cups of tea.

Purely anecdotally, but I'm over 60, and have recently realized that I'm not as sensitive to dehydration feedback as I used to be. It's enough of a problem that I catalogued it as something to consider in my daily life.