11^th Annual Hydration for Health Scientific Conference, Evian, June 2019

This 11^th edition, held on June 25^th – 26^th in Evian, France, gathered over 200 hydrationists worldwide and explored current public health concerns, all while opening the discussion towards new territories. On the first day, the Hydration for Health Academy was followed by an innovative Meet the Experts session. The second day consisted of exploring the link between water and metabolic health, water resource management, and healthy behaviors, along with a Pitch Your Science! challenge and a roundtable discussion on how innovation can influence drinking behaviors.

This edition of the Hydration for Health Scientific conference started with an Academy on June 25^th: a preconference day focused on hydration science. Four courses were presented:

1. Hydration Physiology
   
2. Kidney Physiology
   
3. EASO Teaching Course
   
4. EFAD: Hydration for Dietitians

The first course, hydration physiology, started with a talk by Prof. Stavros A. Kavouras (USA) on water metabolism and hydration basics, focusing on understanding how water plays a crucial role in the body. This was followed by a talk done by Dr. Erica T. Perrier (France) which analyzed new developments in hydration assessment, looking at what biomarkers and assessment tools are most accurate in determining if a person is well-hydrated.

In parallel, a course on kidney physiology was introduced by Dr. Lise Bankir (France) and Dr. Ivan Tack (France). The first talk essentially focused on Hydration and Kidney Physiology, thus the relationship between kidneys and water, and how vasopressin regulates body fluids and plasma osmolality. This then led into a focus on the Clinical Aspects of Hydration and Renal Function, and different kidney related diseases such as Urinary Tract Infections or Chronic Kidney Disease and the relationship to water intake.

Next, the EASO Teaching Course was introduced by Dr. Nathalie Farpour-Lambert (Switzerland), followed by a talk on transforming motivation into efficient action through Motivational Interviews & Patient Education by Prof. Alain Golay (Switzerland).

The last course, Hydration for Dietitians by EFAD, introduces the European Healthy Hydration Awareness Campaign (EuHHAC) through a talk by Annemieke Van Ginkel (The Netherlands), and then discusses the role for dietitians in hydration education through a talk by Pauline Douglas (UK).

You are now able to explore some of these courses and more online! Enter the Hydration for Health Online Academy here: Hydration for Health Academy

This enriched day was then closed by a Meet the Experts session: an opportunity to improve scientific reasoning through an in-depth discussion in small groups. Dr. Evan C. Johnson (USA) focused in on the scientific principles of a study design and how the format determines the interpretation, whereas Dr. Louise Moist (Canada) talked about how to critically appraise Randomized Controlled Trail.

The second day of this event, June 26^th, was chaired by Prof. Lawrence E. Armstrong (USA). With unique sessions exploring various transversal topics on hydration and its links to health, a ‘Pitch your Science!’ challenge, and a creative round-table session, this simulating event fosters continuous passion towards hydration science!

The day began with a session on hydration and metabolic health. Dr. Arya M. Sharma (Canada) opened with his talk on why obesity is classified as a chronic disease and the long-term effectiveness of ‘lifestyle’ interventions. This talk was followed by a journey through the early evidence linking hydration to metabolic health by Dr. Tiphaine Vanhaecke (France), unravelling how the vasopressin is implicated in the pathophysiology of metabolic diseases. The last talk of this session, done by Dr. Olle Melander, focuses on 1-week, 6-week and 1-year interventions of increasing water intake and if there are links to a change in vasopressin levels.

This continued into a session on water resource management, introduced by Prof. Ghislain de Marsily (France), with a lecture on whether it is possible to run out of water and potential remedies for the imbalance between the supply and demand of water. This then led into a lecture by Dr. Patrick Lachassagne (France) on what groundwater is, and lastly, the burden and of kidney diseases and understanding inequities to care and treatment by Dr. Adeera Levin (Canada).

The last talks explored the importance of behavior change for healthy hydration. Dr. Esther Papies (UK) presented the essential need to understand psychological processes leading to short-term desires, and thus potential unhealthy behaviors. Next, Dr. Aukje Verhoeven (France) explored attitudes that can lead to healthier hydration habits, while bringing to light a study looking at high sugar – low water drinkers in Mexico. A talk by Dr. Amarasiri de Silva (USA) followed, looking at how people in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka who are affected by endemic chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) explain drinking water as a factor causing the illness, thus leading to changes in behaviors, relationships and perceptions towards water. This session was wrapped up with a talk from Prof. Michael Rocco (USA) on how a fluid intake app can help patients receiving chronic hemodialysis therapy have healthier hydration habits.

The day was wrapped up with a roundtable discussion with Bruno Dasque, VP Danone R&I Waters, Anthony Finbow, CEO of Eagle Genomics and Michael Bergeron, Senior Vice President of Development & Applications of Sivotech. The topic of whether cutting-edge technology can help us drink better was the area of focus, focusing in on, for example, if we can extract and use data to drive behavior change and how technology-enabled data can impact prevention.

For the 8^th year in a row, 6 young researchers pitched their work in 3 minutes, with the goal of being selected by the audience as the Young Research Award Winner. The winner of this year’s session is Loris Juett from Loughborough University in the UK, for his outstanding work suggesting that hypohydration during intermittent exercise increases biomarkers of kidney damage in recreationally active males.

This year, the Pitch your Science! Challenge was also done at the American College of Sports Medicine 66^th annual meeting, of which the winner was Dr. Justin Holland from the Queensland University of Technology for his work on suggesting that dehydration has no influence on simulated motor-race performance despite greater cardiovascular and thermoregulatory demand.

You can know more about the Pitch your Science! Challenge here.

We look forward to welcoming you in Evian for the 12th Annual Scientific Conference in Evian, France, from June 23rd to June 24th 2020.

Check out 11^th Conference Agenda here.

Here you'll find a great article about the Scientific Conference from the #1 French medical press: Le Quotidien du Médecin

https://communique3.lequotidiendumedecin.fr/