One of the biggest contributing factors of aging poorly is improper hydration. Think about how your body feels when you have a cold - dry, dehydrated, and tapped out of energy, you’re dehydrated. That’s why soups and clear clean liquids are touted as home remedies. Also, lots of medications cause dehydration.
Hydration doesn’t simply mean drink more water. This is bigger than a glass of water a few times a day. I am mentioning this now because MOST people don’t understand, or care, about why they’re dehydrated. They just want to quench it with water and not address the root cause.
The ‘Big 5’ minerals for hydration are calcium, magnesium, chloride, sodium, and potassium. These electrolyte minerals regulate hydration throughout various systems of the body. Other daily trace minerals should include zinc, iodine, chromium, iron, and manganese. Many quality hydration drink mixes contain electrolytes (big 5 above), trace minerals, and a little naturally occurring sugar to fuel the body to run properly, i.e; no cramping, fatigue, or brain fog.
Why this matters? Lack of proper hydration leads to a myriad of health/performance issues. This is where most people loose interest in their health, where doctors lack nutritional knowledge, and some self-help science needs to be applied. Chronic dehydration affects up to 75% of people and is often overlooked by medical professionals, and is a driver for several chronic health conditions, not to mention deteriorated joints and connective tissue - knee replacement, anyone? Imagine that, and it took me to tell you.
What you can do is to start taking electrolytes and trace minerals. A quality low sugar, real fruit flavored hydration drink will give you some of the these. You may need to add more mineral supplements to your nutrition due to industrially farmed foods. Remember that the RDA is the minimum recommended dietary allowance, so use good judgement and check with your health professional.