Advocacy & Safety - 12-mile ride + 3 gallons of water kills DC Cop

District Officer Dies After Bike Ride
Over-Hydration Cited as Factor

By Del Quentin Wilber and David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 11, 2005; Page B01

A highly honored 25-year-old D.C. police officer died yesterday after he apparently drank too much water Tuesday while training to use a bicycle on patrol, police officials said.

Doctors believe that hyponatremia, a sodium imbalance caused by drinking excessive amounts of fluid, most likely caused or contributed to the death of Officer James C. McBride, police officials said. McBride consumed as much as three gallons of water during and after the 12-mile training ride Tuesday morning, police said.

The doctors "did mention that he had consumed an awful lot of water," said D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, adding that authorities are awaiting autopsy results. "They are saying that is a possibility it might have contributed. . . . This is something that is really unusual. We are usually concerned about dehydration as opposed to people consuming too much water."

Hyponatremia, an abnormally low salt concentration in the blood, occurs when a person loses a large amount of sodium or consumes a large amount of water. Hyponatremia in athletes is almost always caused by drinking too much water.

As the blood becomes increasingly diluted, water moves out of the bloodstream and into cells, which swell. The swelling of the brain is responsible for the symptoms of severe hyponatremia -- nausea, confusion, seizures and coma. If pressure inside the skull increases enough, the base of the brain is squeezed downward through where connects it to the spinal cord, causing death.

McBride, who joined the force two years ago, was named the 1st Police District's rookie of the year. Colleagues said he pushed supervisors to allow him to attend the weeklong bicycle training course so he could better patrol his beat, Sursum Corda -- a notoriously violent public housing complex off North Capitol Street.

"This guy is really out here hustling to make a difference," D.C. Police Inspector Andrew Solberg said. "I read the arrest reports, and it seemed like his name was on them all the time. He just seemed to be a central component in everything that was going on."

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) issued a statement saying McBride was an officer who "loved his city and who served it well." Police said McBride lived in Maryland.

McBride and 15 other officers started the course Monday at the department's academy complex in Southwest Washington. The next morning, the officers did a 12-mile training ride that included hills, police said.

About 2 p.m. Tuesday, McBride attended a training session that focused on how to dismount a bike. An instructor noticed that McBride looked ill and asked him to sit down. McBride complained of dizziness and nausea, police said. He then vomited, they said. Officers initially thought he might have suffered heat stroke.

Sgt. Timothy Evans, who ran the bike course, said he was not aware that McBride had drunk so much liquid and gave him some water to cool him down.

"I thought it was heat exhaustion," said Evans, who worked with McBride in the 1st District. "It never dawned on me that it might have been over-hydration."

At some point, McBride told an instructor that he had consumed perhaps as much as three gallons of water contained in a backpack he was carrying. Bicyclists often drink water through a tube connected to a bladder contained in such packs.

Officers said that McBride seemed to be recovering as he sat out the exercise. When another officer hurt his knee, police summoned an ambulance. The paramedics noticed that McBride was convulsing and continuing to vomit. They took him to Washington Hospital Center, where he died about 1:30 p.m. yesterday.

Many experts believe hyponatremia has become more common in recent years. More people are engaging in endurance events, such as marathons, that last many hours and during which participants are urged to drink water.

The blood concentration of sodium is normally about 145, measured in millimoles per liter. A study published in April in the New England Journal of Medicine found that in a random sample of 488 Boston Marathon runners, 22 percent of women and 8 percent of men had sodium levels below 135, the formal definition of hyponatremia. One participant, a 28-year-old woman, died of the condition.

In the Marine Corps Marathon last year in Virginia, four runners were treated for hyponatremia, and two were admitted to hospital intensive care units. A 35-year-old woman died of the condition in the 2002 race.

Some experts, however, caution against overreacting.

"We don't want to alarm people into drinking too little, because dehydration can cause problems as well," said Christopher Almond, a cardiologist at Children's Hospital in Boston who headed the Boston Marathon study.

Weird coincidence for me in that the first time I heard of hyponatremia was in 2002 after the Marine Corps Marathon. A woman went into a coma and died shortly after the race. She apparently drank at every mile marker and only water, not the accelerade.

Sheesh! 3 gallons?!? Isn't that like 18 pounds?

Dude.. 12 miles?!
Even in 90 degree weather, I only drink about 24 ounces of water if I'm riding hard. If not, maybe half a bottle.

OK people you're creeping me out ..... see a couple'a weeks ago I rode all over heck and gone going to the Hellyer velodrome on my SS, by my usual takes-hours-because-I'm-lost route, and then rode back on Capitol Expressway, yep past all the car dealers etc., no other cyclists out there, it was friggin' HOT. And before starting out, I grabbed a bottle of water at the local Starbuckies, and drank some each time I stopped to look at my map (I looked at my map a lot).

Well, this is weird but near the end of the ride I had a weird feeling of my head swelling. It was strange. Funny thing, the water for some reason was "0 sodium". I probably did about 30 miles, and I never got to any stage of nausea etc., but something didn't seem quite right. It was a large bicycle bottle's worth, and I used a bit to wash my face sparingly at Hellyer Park, so I was not drinking tons of the stuff, but wow, maybe those nice salty pretzels biker G. Bush swears at, er, by, are a good idea.

The army said 6 quarts a day, 12 maximum, depending on the intensity of your activity. Apparently a quart per mile on a bicycle is a bit too much.

<"Many experts believe hyponatremia has become more common in recent years. More people are engaging in endurance events, such as marathons, that last many hours and during which participants are urged to drink water."

Probably more common because we havn't figured out you DON'T DRINK ******** AMMOUNTS OF WATER!
No offense to the off. but if the guy really had that much water on him that's ridiculous. It was probably 3 litres anyway, either way 3 litres over 12 miles! Thats like a liter every 4 miles.

Ironically there are a few studies out showing that the risk in hyponatremia is higher than the risks in dehydration. Hard to die of dehydration in a few hours.
This case isn't just sad, it's wierd. No-one should be able to drink that much water that fast without something going on. I'd put down money the guy's blood sugar was huge and he was polydipsic secondary to undiagnosed diabetes. Either that or someone put ex in his power bar.
Jeez.
Dodge bullets and you drown on a bike. sheesh.

I never heard of this until a few years ago. There was an episode of ER about it. Who knew? Anyway, would that death possibly have been avoided if he was drinking gatorade or something similar? Just curious.

Maybe, Gatorade has a bunch of other stuff in it. Either way I'm not gonna try.

But damn, 3 gallons of water??? The most I have drinken in a day is 2gal and that was because I was outside doing hard physical activity for 8hr+ in 90+ weather.

Three gallons in a backpack? What kind of backpack did this guy have? The large camelback carries 3 liters not 3 gallons. I think somebody is confused. Assuming the ride took a hour, I doubt you could down 3 gallons of anything.

Back in the 80's I was diagnosed with the same problem. I became very ill. I found out the hard way, it is possible to drink too much water.

Sheesh! 3 gallons?!? Isn't that like 18 pounds?

25.02 lbs (to be a little more precise)

It's entirely possible it was three liters, but then hyponatremia should be suprising, shouldn't it? Three liters is a LOT of water, but not that much. I notice we don't know what he'd been doing the rest of the day, either. I used to lose 8-10 pounds over the course of a day of three-a-day practices, and I figured that was all water.


News reports are almost invariably wrong on any number of details. People only notice when the news touches on something in which they themselves are at least competent. The catch is that most people, when they see an outrageously inaccurate story outside their area of expertise the next day, will revert right back to swallowing anything that makes it into print.

It's entirely possible it was three liters, but then hyponatremia should be suprising, shouldn't it? Three liters is a LOT of water, but not that much.

3 liters = 0.792516154 US gallons

You won't be dealthy ill from low salt from less than 1 gallon of water unless you started the day with a VERY low salt content.

Dude.. 12 miles?!
Even in 90 degree weather, I only drink about 24 ounces of water if I'm riding hard. If not, maybe half a bottle.
I hear that. I thought I was the only camel out there. That is a pretty scary condition though. I get a "stitch" if I consume too many liquids when I am riding.

I suffered a mild case of this condition when cycling in the mojave desert in 98 deg heat one year, had no idea. Now that I know about it, I always eat pretzels, use electrolyte pills, eat salty foods. Now I never suffer from this, even if I drink 6 liters of water, but I never drink 3 gallons.


OK people you're creeping me out ..... see a couple'a weeks ago I rode all over heck and gone going to the Hellyer velodrome on my SS, by my usual takes-hours-because-I'm-lost route, and then rode back on Capitol Expressway, yep past all the car dealers etc., no other cyclists out there, it was friggin' HOT. And before starting out, I grabbed a bottle of water at the local Starbuckies, and drank some each time I stopped to look at my map (I looked at my map a lot).

Well, this is weird but near the end of the ride I had a weird feeling of my head swelling. It was strange. Funny thing, the water for some reason was "0 sodium". I probably did about 30 miles, and I never got to any stage of nausea etc., but something didn't seem quite right. It was a large bicycle bottle's worth, and I used a bit to wash my face sparingly at Hellyer Park, so I was not drinking tons of the stuff, but wow, maybe those nice salty pretzels biker G. Bush swears at, er, by, are a good idea.

i'm not doubting the three gallons from a medical standpoint just that i don't know of any camelbacks that carry that much. Most of the big ones are 3 litres so i was guessing.

And three litres shouldn't be enough to kill you but it's still impressive. (Ever try to drink 3 litres of water fast?) Point is most of us start gagging if we drink that fast (it's a protective mechanism.) That's why i wonder if something was wrong that made the guy unnaturally thirsty or maybe if his serum sodium was really low to start with.

OK people you're creeping me out ..... see a couple'a weeks ago I rode all over heck and gone going to the Hellyer velodrome on my SS, by my usual takes-hours-because-I'm-lost route, and then rode back on Capitol Expressway, yep past all the car dealers etc., no other cyclists out there, it was friggin' HOT. And before starting out, I grabbed a bottle of water at the local Starbuckies, and drank some each time I stopped to look at my map (I looked at my map a lot).

Well, this is weird but near the end of the ride I had a weird feeling of my head swelling. It was strange. Funny thing, the water for some reason was "0 sodium". I probably did about 30 miles, and I never got to any stage of nausea etc., but something didn't seem quite right. It was a large bicycle bottle's worth, and I used a bit to wash my face sparingly at Hellyer Park, so I was not drinking tons of the stuff, but wow, maybe those nice salty pretzels biker G. Bush swears at, er, by, are a good idea.

I think you were just dehydrated. What size was the bottle? The 'standard' size bottle of water,the kind you get from vending machines and fits in a regular cage,is .5 liter. Half a liter for 30mi in heat is not enough,especially if some of it was used for something other than drinking. Also,I'm pretty sure all bottled water is 0 sodium(except maybe special fitness stuff).

i'm not doubting the three gallons from a medical standpoint just that i don't know of any camelbacks that carry that much. Most of the big ones are 3 litres so i was guessing.

They said on the news this morning that he drank the 3 gal during and after training. He prolly drank some while riding,then put a whole bunch down afterward,and then drank a bunch more before the afternoon training.

dynaryder I'm sure I was a bit dehydrated, because that wasn't that much water, and it was friggin' hot.

It's called water intoxication, and the resulting electrolyte imbalances due to the sudden water load can have obvious negative effects, as above. Your kidneys can only do so much, so quickly.

Water, in reasonable amounts, of course, is fine for all but very prolonged exercise. You have plenty of stored sodium and potassium, etc, and it takes a while to significantly deplete them from sweating. Eating is good enough, usually.

High-priced sports drinks are mainly a marketing gimmick, and a very successful one.

Personally, i use water, and sometimes water with some OJ in it.

Mention was made of the military requirement for water. Here it is:

At 32ºC (90ºF), for hard work, the daily requirement is about 10 l (2.6 gal).

I'm thinking the report is not correct, or something was wrong with the officer before the ride.

A sad story.

I'm thinking the report is not correct, or something was wrong with the officer before the ride.
A sad story.

The problem wasn't entirely with the fact of how much water he drank, the problem is that he didn't replace his bodies salts after sweating and (likely frequent) urination. Having a lot of water won't kill you as long as you aren't flushing out other necessities in the meantime.

Water, in reasonable amounts, of course, is fine for all but very prolonged exercise. You have plenty of stored sodium and potassium, etc, and it takes a while to significantly deplete them from sweating. Eating is good enough, usually.

High-priced sports drinks are mainly a marketing gimmick, and a very successful one.

Personally, i use water, and sometimes water with some OJ in it.
I routinely drink a full 1½ liter bottle of tap water for each half of my 24 mile R/T commute. I add a little lime or lemon concentrate for taste purposes when refilling the bottle. On 95°F and above temps I put away almost two bottles (3 liters) in the hour. In between, during the work day, I drink 2 or three more 1½ liter bottles, plus a pot of coffee.

When I get home its time for a couple beers and either more water or sometimes soda pop with my supper. I never add salt to anything or any vitamin/mineral supplements. No problems at all so far. Sleep like a baby through the night too.

i'm not doubting the three gallons from a medical standpoint just that i don't know of any camelbacks that carry that much. Most of the big ones are 3 litres so i was guessing.



You obviously haven't seen the new model.

The three gallon figure came from the deceased while he was suffering from dizziness, nausea and convulsions. Therefore it should be taken with a grain of salt (no pun intended). As another poster pointed out, 3 gallons is like 18 pounds of water. No way was he carrying that in a backpack. 3 liters is more likely. That's still a lot of water, but is it enough to kill you? I've drained a 100-oz. Camelback within 60 miles on a hot day. Is it possible the guy just got a case of heatstroke, and the 3-gallon thing is causing inaccurate reporting of the story?

3 gallons of water weigh 24 pounds. "A pint's a pound the world around."

3 gallons of water weigh 24 pounds. "A pint's a pound the world around."

Stupid me. I thought that referred to the price of lager.

The problem wasn't entirely with the fact of how much water he drank, the problem is that he didn't replace his bodies salts after sweating and (likely frequent) urination. Having a lot of water won't kill you as long as you aren't flushing out other necessities in the meantime.

True story.

However, the USA diet tends to be very high in salt. It's tough to avoid. As many of you know, it's even in those healthy frozen vegetables we enjoy. It's hard for me to believe one 12 mile ride (taking 1/2 to 1 hour?) would take this much out of him. Many people on this forum (including me) routinely ride over an hour in high temperatures-day in and day out- with no ill effects.

I'm just suspicous of the details given.

Again, the fact is that a young man died, and that's a shame.

They put high-fructose corn syrup in a surprising number of things too.

OK, before anyone panics and stops drinking water while riding their bicycles, let me point a couple things out ...

1. Three gallons of water during and after a 12-mile training ride is WAY, WAY, WAY, WAY too much. The body can't absorb that much.

The recommended amount is one 750 ml bottle (3 cup, or 26 oz., or 0.16 of a gallon) every 1 to 1.5 hours while riding.

A 12 mile training ride should not have taken him more than 1 hour. So to drink 3 gallons in let's say the hour he was riding, and for an hour after would have drunk almost 10 times the amount of water that his body could have absorbed. No wonder he had problems!


2. Often hyponatremia is caused by a lack of sodium (electrolytes) more than too much water. We can absorb more water than what I've described above if we take in more sodium ... but not 10 times more water! Sweating depetes our electrolytes. Therefore it is a good idea to consume electrolytes along with our water while we ride.

Some good articles:
http://www.ultracycling.com/nutrition/electrolytes.html
http://www.ultracycling.com/nutriti...onatremia1.html
http://www.ultracycling.com/nutriti...onatremia2.html

A couple of years ago I treated a person in status epilepticus due to self-induced hyponatremia. (I believe her sodium was 118, normal is about 140) Started to seize her brains out on the tennis court. Turns out she was trying to get in shape and played tennis for 3 hours. Drank large quantities of water the whole time....never took any electrolyte replacement.

We had to put her on a ventilator and put her in a pentobarb coma to stop the seizures, because none of the usual seizure medicines would work.

I hate it when I see these bozo's on TV telling people to drink huge amounts of water....too cool off or to lose weight...whatever. Problem is some people take that advice literally. They wash out the normal "sodium gradient" in the kidneys after a certain point, and the kidney loses the ability to concentrate the urine. Then the whole natural system falls apart.

If you are thirsty....drink. If you are sweating, replace your electrolytes. If you are too hot and getting a headache, rest and get out of the heat. Let the most amazing machine, your body, tell you what you need.

It's entirely possible it was three liters, but then hyponatremia should be suprising, shouldn't it? Three liters is a LOT of water, but not that much.

I have a 3 litre Camelback that I drain regularly on longer rides in hot weather, and have even stopped to refill it.

jesus, i drop bottle of water every 10-12mi....his intake was just nuts.

I remeber hearing about some girl that died in a rave in chicago years ago from this, however apparenty being on ecstacy (she was) makes this more likely to occur for some reason.

Either way, for an active person, sodium is good. Proper sodium intke daily is crucial to proper hydration, which will make things far easier.

I bet he was really huffing and puffing...I found rapid breathing drys out the mouth and throat, and creates a false sense of thirst.

Back in the 60's, my high school coaches would require us to take salt tablets in hot weather, along with drinking small amounts of water at regular intervals (say...four to eight ounces of water every thirty minutes). I don't think ANY of my coaches could have given a "scientific" reason for requiring the salt tablets.

But, the recent articles about runners dying for TOO MUCH water suggest that lack of sodium was the real culprit. No one has died from consuming TOO MUCH Gatorade.

So, folks who prefer drinking "just" water ought to consider tossing a teaspoon of salt into the bottle of water. Perhaps a couple of teaspoons of sugar, to make it more drinkable.

I often ride between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. during July and August in Houston. The heat index for the shade might be 110 degrees. In a sun-baked street, the heat index is closer to 130 degrees. I find that 20 ounces of water per hour is plenty, IF (and only if) I am well hydrated prior to getting on my bike.

In the summer, I try to drink about 12 ounces of water per hour, all day. I frequently "snack" on nuts, and other salty foods, so I'm never low on sodium. Then, I drink about 20 ounces of water in the hour before starting a ride. Then another 20 ounces of water each hour during the ride. Even on the days when the asphalt is melting, that 20 ounces is enough to keep me feeling comfortable.

A "clue" is body weight. If you come back from a hard ride weighing two pounds MORE than when you started, you are WAY over-hydrated. If you weigh two pounds less, you are dehydrated. Of course, not many home scales are accurate enough to detect much less than a two pound weight swing...but body weight is still a useful clue.

You can tell when you are starting to get hyponatremic, at least if it's a hot day and you are sweating. You feel thirsty, but no matter now much you drink it doesn't quench your thirst. So, you can easily blow it by continuing to drink, when what you really need is to have a salty snack.

I have a 3-liter camelback and that's enough for an all day hike in steep terraine on a warm day. Even when backpacking I consume (including cooking) about a gallon a day, no more than 2. As far as riding goes, I ride 8.5 miles to work and when I get there I sometimes drink coffee-cup of water, or else I drink a coffee-cup of coffee (that's like negative water). That guy really made a big mistake. 12 miles on a bike is like 2 miles walking.

Sheesh! 3 gallons?!? Isn't that like 18 pounds?

Nearly 26 pounds - water at room temperature weighs something just under 8.6 pounds to the gallon - even though a pint's a pint wherever you go ;)

A pint is only 440mL in Australia.

And I still reckon you have a greater risk of heat exhaustion than hyponeutraemia.

3 litres of water in 12 miles would not give you h-n, not even close.

The world, I just discovered, is a really small place. As it turns out, the officer was a long time member of AntiOnline (http://www.antionline.com) (where I'm a moderator). I suspect many of the members there will miss him. :(

A couple of years ago I treated a person in status epilepticus due to self-induced hyponatremia. (I believe her sodium was 118, normal is about 140) Started to seize her brains out on the tennis court. Turns out she was trying to get in shape and played tennis for 3 hours. Drank large quantities of water the whole time....never took any electrolyte replacement.

We had to put her on a ventilator and put her in a pentobarb coma to stop the seizures, because none of the usual seizure medicines would work.

I hate it when I see these bozo's on TV telling people to drink huge amounts of water....too cool off or to lose weight...whatever. Problem is some people take that advice literally. They wash out the normal "sodium gradient" in the kidneys after a certain point, and the kidney loses the ability to concentrate the urine. Then the whole natural system falls apart.

If you are thirsty....drink. If you are sweating, replace your electrolytes. If you are too hot and getting a headache, rest and get out of the heat. Let the most amazing machine, your body, tell you what you need.

When this happened to me, I was on a jag to stop cramping so easily on long efforts off road. I would pound the water down all the time. My urine ran clear constantly. And since I hated (and still do) the taste of most energy drinks, water is all I drank. And exactly as you pointed out, my kidneys stopped working right and I became bloated and semi coherent. My case was mild and after a stern lecture and a little medical magic from my doctor, in a few days I was fine. I have been very careful ever since to incorporate elctrolyte replenishment as part of my exercise.

You can tell when you are starting to get hyponatremic, at least if it's a hot day and you are sweating. You feel thirsty, but no matter now much you drink it doesn't quench your thirst. So, you can easily blow it by continuing to drink, when what you really need is to have a salty snack.


Agreed.

You feel bloated and full but you're thirsty as hell and can't stop drinking. That's when you cross the danger zone and trouble begins.

I like to know what he was wearing during this ride because this could have contributed to his death as I've seen police officers on bikes wearing waaaay too much clothing and equiptment attached to their bodies. While at the beach several weeks ago, I noticed bike cops and could NOT believe what they were wearing. It must have been 95 degrees on the boardwalk but they were wearing this cheap helmet with small vents and it was black! Furthermore, they were wearing this long sweat pant where the bell bottoms had elastic bands which kept all the heat inside the leg! YUK! To top it off, they had a belt that probably carried an additional 20 pounds of equiptment.

You can see why these bike cops were sweating like bandits holding up a bank.

"A pint's a pound the world around."Aw, I wanted to say that.

Three gallons of water is an absurd amount. On a 2 to 2-1/2 hour ride on a hot day (over 90 degree F, heat index about 100 degree), I'll consume two 3 cup (.75 liter) water bottles, plus maybe a couple of cups of water before I ride and a couple of cups after. That's 10 cups total - a gallon is 16 cups. I can't even imagine drinking 3 gallons.



Back in the 60's, my high school coaches would require us to take salt tablets in hot weather, along with drinking small amounts of water at regular intervals (say...four to eight ounces of water every thirty minutes). I don't think ANY of my coaches could have given a "scientific" reason for requiring the salt tablets.They wouldn't have been able to give you a scientific reason because there isn't any. A lot of employers used to dispense salt tablets to their workers, too, but they stopped because salt tablets are more likely to cause dehydration than prevent it. Salt tablets were 'voodoo treatment' of dehydration (if it's a treatment of anything, it's a treatment of over-hydration). If there's a high concentration of salt in the stomach, the body will shunt water from body tissues to the stomach to dilute it; the result can be dehydration. The sports drinks marketed to prevent dehydration can have the same effect if consumed in too large an amount, too high a concentration or too quickly. This is why I never carry more than one bottle of a sports drink. The other bottle is just water. (the sports drink does seem to give me a boost sometimes, but I attribute this more to the sugar in it than to the salt)

A lot depends on a person's conditioning and, especially, their adaptation to heat. A person adapted to heat will perspire less and lose less salt than someone who is not adapted. A person who is not adapted may have problems no matter how much water or salt they consume.

I used to be a competitive distance runner and I spent a lot of time training specifically for heat. (I always liked it was hot on race day because I knew the heat would bother others more than it would bother me) Even on my killer workouts (which I never did when the heat index was over 100, BTW), I consumed relatively small amounts of water. In fact, the best indication that I was well adapted was that I neither wanted or needed a lot of water. By killer workout I mean something like 8 to 10 half mile repetitions HARD, with short rests in between. One of the places I did these didn't even have a drinking fountain and I only took one water bottle, so I wasn't drinking a lot of water. And I wasn't thirsty.

Disclaimer: I'm not suggesting that I restricted my water intake. If I was thirsty, I drank water. I'm merely suggesting that, when I was well adapted to heat, I neither needed nor wanted a lot of water.

(And I sure didn't want any idiot throwing water on me during a race! Son of a frickin'! :D I'd spent years training so that I would perspire only enough to cool my body but not so much that there would be water on my skin, which creates a humid micro-environment, and some idiot throws water on me that's going to take miles to evaporate! Sheesh! Thank's a lot!)

Thirst is usually a good indication of the need for water but it may not be. There may be other things going on.



You can tell when you are starting to get hyponatremic, at least if it's a hot day and you are sweating. You feel thirsty, but no matter now much you drink it doesn't quench your thirst. So, you can easily blow it by continuing to drink, when what you really need is to have a salty snack.
I think you're right. A bloated feeling (or the feeling of water sloshing around your stomach), especially if you've been drinking a fair amount of water, is a good indication that more water is not what you need.

You need water to live but more water is not always a good thing.

3 gallons of water weigh 24 pounds. "A pint's a pound the world around."

Unless you're in the U.K. where "…a pint of pure water weighs a pound-and-a-quarter…" (US pint = 16 fl. oz. Imperial pint = 20 fl. oz.)

- Wil

I am coming late to this thread but have a little to add.

I took a 40 hour course to be a bike cop. The training rides were not stressfull BUT most of us were not in the best of shape. I also wore a Bullet resistant vest as well as my 12 lb duty belt with gun, radio, baton, pepper spray, spare ammo and more. In addition I was 50 lbs overweight.

I drank a lot of water as well as Gatorade. We were not limited to what we carried on the bike since we had a support vehicle as well. It was stocked with energy bars, Gatorade and water.

The 3 gallon figure is easy for me to agree with since in my class we all were drinking water throughout the day. From start to end we had full bottles of Gatorade, water, camelbacks and extra in the van. I personally felt I sweated out many pounds of water and believe I was drinking over two gallons a day. We had the benefit of Gatorade as opposed to just water.

I believe this officer was drinking a lot prior to the ride and throughout the day. Water only led to the Hyponatremia. For this reason when out and about on a bike I carry both a bottle of water AND Gatorade. The Camelback has water only.

In my class the concept of "Overhydration" was discussed and the cure was provided up front in the Gatorade. We had no problems.

I feel for the officers family and friends. It looks like the district lost a good guy.

I remeber hearing about some girl that died in a rave in chicago years ago from this, however apparenty being on ecstacy (she was) makes this more likely to occur for some reason.

That would probably have been HYPERantremia. Exstacy (MDMA), Herbal Exstacy (Ephedra and Caffiene), and "Legal E" (BZP and TFMPP) all cause a drastic increase in body temperature with the increased activity due to the manic dancing. Water is scarce at raves, or people are consuming carbonated energy drinks with alcohol. Usually a person will be taking in a lot of "salts" (chemicals defined as salts not nessecarily NaCl) and that combined with caffiene can create a diuretic effect on the kidneys and cause them to expell more water than they consume...the effect then is dehydration...then hyperantremia from the dehydrated body no longer being able to expell the salts due to lack of fluids. The most common medical problem at raves is simple heat stroke though...but that can be deadly if not treated.