Too much water?

[oxologic]

Is there anything as too much water?
Is there any side-effects of drinking too much water?

[DnvrFox]

Originally posted by oxologic
Is there anything as too much water?
Is there any side-effects of drinking too much water?

From

http://www.alpharubicon.com/med/watertox.html

*TOO MUCH WATER CAN KILL YOU *
WATER INTOXICATION
The facts you need to save your life
By TNT
Rule #1 - you can’t drink too much water.
Rule #2 - too much salt will kill you eventually.

If you live by those 2 rules - and you exercise / work regularly in hot weather, read on, it just might save your health.

The truth is, too much water and not enough salt can kill you. Most people know that dehydration can cause serious health consequences. What most don’t realize is that too much of a good thing — WATER — can also be dangerous, even deadly.

They call it WATER INTOXICATION or more technically HYPONATREMIA. It happens when the body’s balance of salt and water become quickly diluted. It affects the production of nerve impulses, and impairs mental processes. Cells take on extra water and expand. As they swell, they put stress on the body’s organs, particularly the brain, which has little room to expand within the skull. Sometimes Hyponatremia is caused by an underlying medical condition.

[catfish]

http://www.alpharubicon.com/med/watertox.html

yes drinking too much water, aka HYPONATREMIA. can be a problem for some people read about it at this link i provided, or do a search for water intoxication. it seems the problem comes from sweating way too much and loosing salt and other minerals then too much water dilutes the salt etc thay is left and serious proiblems can occur.

most people hav never heard of this and havent had a problem with it but it i does exist and is real for some. THere is a ton of information on the subject
stay hydrated but be aware of warning signs on a long hard day

[catfish]

ahh D F you type faster then i do we replied the same info at the same tiem :)

[DnvrFox]

Originally posted by catfish
ahh D F you type faster then i do we replied the same info at the same tiem :)

You know what is said about great minds !!:D

[RiPHRaPH]

just think of it this way: we are not 80% water, we are 80% saline. when you get an IV it is saline (salt water soln) not just water.
if you've ever had a salt water fish tank. if you replace the salt water when cleaning the tank - with plain water, eventually you will get an electrolyte imbalance......

replacing salty sweat with plain water (over time and in abundance, say during a RAAM) can be fatal. there are cases of marathonand triathletes dying from this error.

[Soberone]

I read in a nutrition mag (I wish I could remimber which one) that drinking too much water was difficult to do. It really didn't give many advantages to drinking alot of water however. Your body will just purge itself of any that doesn't get used. I like to drink alot of water myself. However, as a diabetic, I know that if you are drinking water because you stay thirsty all the time (I mean really thirsty, all the time) could be something to check out with your doc. It was the primary side effect of my untreted diabities years ago. (not intending to alarm)

[jmlee]

This is again a situation where we need to keep things in perspective.

Without meaning whatsoever to belittle the possibility or reality of hyponatremia, I would imagine that most readers of this forum are more at risk of not drinking enough, rather than drinking too much.

12quarts of water a day (what the article considers a limit) is a heck of a lot of water. You'd end up having to drink constantly, even while peeing it out.

Listen carefully to your body, it will tell you what it wants. If you crave something salty, you probably need the salts. Everything in moderation.

Cheers,
Jamie

[MichaelW]

I only know of one death due to HYPONATREMIA. A girl takes her first excstacy tab at home, and follows the general advice to drink lots of water. She forgot the context of that advice which is for someone dancing for 5hours in a sweaty nightclub.
The death was attributed to the drugs rather than inappropriate drinking of water, and her parents became crusaders against excstacy rather than excessive water drinking.

For cyclists in hot climates it is very difficult to drink too much and very easy to dehydrate.

[Amir R. Pakdel]

they say 8 glasses of water a day for a normal person, not even someone that does hours of biking or other exercises.

You are always at the risk of not getting enough water than drinking too much water.

[DnvrFox]

Originally posted by oxologic
Is there anything as too much water?
Is there any side-effects of drinking too much water?

Please reread the original question.

Somehow the original question has gotten twisted into all these warnings about needing to drink water, which we all know anyhow and do not need constant reminders.

The gentleman asked a theoretical question and got a theoretical answer. What is it about newsgroups, forums and listservs where everyone has to read their own biases into a simple question?