From nanny state to naggy state

We lose our sens of thirst as we age

I think many of them were perfectly OK before, but became over-heated, dehydrated and then confused.
Families were away and came back to find the bodies.
It was very, very hot, we were in the Pyrenees and have a photo of the thermometer at 37 degrees at 7.30am.

Presumably they were not compos mentis, or perhaps physically unable to get water for themselves?

I agree Bags, but nearly 15,000 people, most of them elderly, died here in the heatwave of August 2003. This was mostly because the rest of France had gone on holiday and nobody checked. If the warnings save just a few lives, it is surely worthwhile.

Maybe we need to start telling the naggers to shut the F up.

You don't need any common sense to sense thirst. You just need an animal brain that works in the most basic way. All other mammals manage perfectly well. Why shouldn't we?

Is it because we are nagged at every turn - told what are "healthy options", when food should be eaten by, how much fat/sugar/protein/carbohydrate to consume, how much liquid to drink, when to go out in the sun - or not - ("Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun") how many fruit and veggies to eat per day, etc etc etc - all of these seem designed to undermine our own ability to think for ourselves or trust our own judgement.As you know - use it or lose it.

Common sense is actually very uncommon!

Die out, I should say.

Can people really not tell when they are thirsty? If so, it's obviously time we went extinct because of the crass stupidity of the species. An animal that doesn't know to drink when it is thirsty deserves to die.

mishap, I find that about the army very hard to believe.

Apparently the army don't know that you have to drink lots when it's hot.

Believe me, as a GP's wife, people do need to be told the simplest things. Huge amounts of their time are taken up with dealing with the simplest things that just require a ha'porth of nouse!

Or to be told by Victoria beckham on twitter to wear sunscreen! Drives me nuts