Drinking too much water can kill!!??
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C_Lopez
Posts: 79 Member
I wanted to post this article from www.scientificamerican.com which really suprised me and wanted to share with anyone who challenges to drink more than they should.
Hyponatremia, a word cobbled together from Latin and Greek roots, translates as "insufficient salt in the blood." Quantitatively speaking, it means having a blood sodium concentration below 135 millimoles per liter, or approximately 0.4 ounces per gallon, the normal concentration lying somewhere between 135 and 145 millimoles per liter. Severe cases of hyponatremia can lead to water intoxication, an illness whose symptoms include headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, frequent urination and mental disorientation.
In humans the kidneys control the amount of water, salts and other solutes leaving the body by sieving blood through their millions of twisted tubules. When a person drinks too much water in a short period of time, the kidneys cannot flush it out fast enough and the blood becomes waterlogged. Drawn to regions where the concentration of salt and other dissolved substances is higher, excess water leaves the blood and ultimately enters the cells, which swell like balloons to accommodate it.
Most cells have room to stretch because they are embedded in flexible tissues such as fat and muscle, but this is not the case for neurons. Brain cells are tightly packaged inside a rigid boney cage, the skull, and they have to share this space with blood and cerebrospinal fluid, explains Wolfgang Liedtke, a clinical neuroscientist at Duke University Medical Center. "Inside the skull there is almost zero room to expand and swell," he says.
Thus, brain edema, or swelling, can be disastrous. "Rapid and severe hyponatremia causes entry of water into brain cells leading to brain swelling, which manifests as seizures, coma, respiratory arrest, brain stem herniation and death," explains M. Amin Arnaout, chief of nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Where did people get the idea that guzzling enormous quantities of water is healthful?A few years ago Heinz Valtin, a kidney specialist from Dartmouth Medical School, decided to determine if the common advice to drink eight, eight-ounce glasses of water per day could hold up to scientific scrutiny. After scouring the peer-reviewed literature, Valtin concluded that no scientific studies support the "eight x eight" dictum (for healthy adults living in temperate climates and doing mild exercise). In fact, drinking this much or more "could be harmful, both in precipitating potentially dangerous hyponatremia and exposure to pollutants, and also in making many people feel guilty for not drinking enough," he wrote in his 2002 review for the American Journal of Physiology—Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. And since he published his findings, Valtin says, "not a single scientific report published in a peer-reviewed publication has proven the contrary."
Most cases of water poisoning do not result from simply drinking too much water, says Joseph Verbalis, chairman of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. It is usually a combination of excessive fluid intake and increased secretion of vasopression (also called antidiuretic hormone), he explains. Produced by the hypothalamus and secreted into the bloodstream by the posterior pituitary gland, vasopressin instructs the kidneys to conserve water. Its secretion increases in periods of physical stress—during a marathon, for example—and may cause the body to conserve water even if a person is drinking excessive quantities.
Every hour, a healthy kidney at rest can excrete 800 to 1,000 milliliters, or 0.21 to 0.26 gallon, of water and therefore a person can drink water at a rate of 800 to 1,000 milliliters per hour without experiencing a net gain in water, Verbalis explains. If that same person is running a marathon, however, the stress of the situation will increase vasopressin levels, reducing the kidney's excretion capacity to as low as 100 milliliters per hour. Drinking 800 to 1,000 milliliters of water per hour under these conditions can potentially lead a net gain in water, even with considerable sweating, he says.
While exercising, "you should balance what you're drinking with what you're sweating," and that includes sports drinks, which can also cause hyponatremia when consumed in excess, Verbalis advises. "If you're sweating 500 milliliters per hour, that is what you should be drinking."
But measuring sweat output is not easy. How can a marathon runner, or any person, determine how much water to consume?As long as you are healthy and equipped with a thirst barometer unimpaired by old age or mind-altering drugs, follow Verbalis's advice, "drink to your thirst. It's the best indicator."
Hyponatremia, a word cobbled together from Latin and Greek roots, translates as "insufficient salt in the blood." Quantitatively speaking, it means having a blood sodium concentration below 135 millimoles per liter, or approximately 0.4 ounces per gallon, the normal concentration lying somewhere between 135 and 145 millimoles per liter. Severe cases of hyponatremia can lead to water intoxication, an illness whose symptoms include headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, frequent urination and mental disorientation.
In humans the kidneys control the amount of water, salts and other solutes leaving the body by sieving blood through their millions of twisted tubules. When a person drinks too much water in a short period of time, the kidneys cannot flush it out fast enough and the blood becomes waterlogged. Drawn to regions where the concentration of salt and other dissolved substances is higher, excess water leaves the blood and ultimately enters the cells, which swell like balloons to accommodate it.
Most cells have room to stretch because they are embedded in flexible tissues such as fat and muscle, but this is not the case for neurons. Brain cells are tightly packaged inside a rigid boney cage, the skull, and they have to share this space with blood and cerebrospinal fluid, explains Wolfgang Liedtke, a clinical neuroscientist at Duke University Medical Center. "Inside the skull there is almost zero room to expand and swell," he says.
Thus, brain edema, or swelling, can be disastrous. "Rapid and severe hyponatremia causes entry of water into brain cells leading to brain swelling, which manifests as seizures, coma, respiratory arrest, brain stem herniation and death," explains M. Amin Arnaout, chief of nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Where did people get the idea that guzzling enormous quantities of water is healthful?A few years ago Heinz Valtin, a kidney specialist from Dartmouth Medical School, decided to determine if the common advice to drink eight, eight-ounce glasses of water per day could hold up to scientific scrutiny. After scouring the peer-reviewed literature, Valtin concluded that no scientific studies support the "eight x eight" dictum (for healthy adults living in temperate climates and doing mild exercise). In fact, drinking this much or more "could be harmful, both in precipitating potentially dangerous hyponatremia and exposure to pollutants, and also in making many people feel guilty for not drinking enough," he wrote in his 2002 review for the American Journal of Physiology—Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. And since he published his findings, Valtin says, "not a single scientific report published in a peer-reviewed publication has proven the contrary."
Most cases of water poisoning do not result from simply drinking too much water, says Joseph Verbalis, chairman of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. It is usually a combination of excessive fluid intake and increased secretion of vasopression (also called antidiuretic hormone), he explains. Produced by the hypothalamus and secreted into the bloodstream by the posterior pituitary gland, vasopressin instructs the kidneys to conserve water. Its secretion increases in periods of physical stress—during a marathon, for example—and may cause the body to conserve water even if a person is drinking excessive quantities.
Every hour, a healthy kidney at rest can excrete 800 to 1,000 milliliters, or 0.21 to 0.26 gallon, of water and therefore a person can drink water at a rate of 800 to 1,000 milliliters per hour without experiencing a net gain in water, Verbalis explains. If that same person is running a marathon, however, the stress of the situation will increase vasopressin levels, reducing the kidney's excretion capacity to as low as 100 milliliters per hour. Drinking 800 to 1,000 milliliters of water per hour under these conditions can potentially lead a net gain in water, even with considerable sweating, he says.
While exercising, "you should balance what you're drinking with what you're sweating," and that includes sports drinks, which can also cause hyponatremia when consumed in excess, Verbalis advises. "If you're sweating 500 milliliters per hour, that is what you should be drinking."
But measuring sweat output is not easy. How can a marathon runner, or any person, determine how much water to consume?As long as you are healthy and equipped with a thirst barometer unimpaired by old age or mind-altering drugs, follow Verbalis's advice, "drink to your thirst. It's the best indicator."
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Replies
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I don't think there is really anything to worry about here for most of us (or maybe if you have some kind of medical problem). The only cases I've ever heard about were extreme athletes like ultra-marathoners and ultra endurance racers.0
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I have read this article in the past.
Probably affects a very few MFP people.
1000 milliliters = 1 liter - Roughly 1 US quart. Lets say 3 glasses of water @ 10 oz each.
MFP recommends 8 glasses per day. This article discusses the problems with consuming more than 3 glasses per hour!.
I agree that there is no research confirming that drinking 8 glasses of water per day is beneficial or dangerous. However, with regards to losing weight. Many times the feeling of hunger is not actually being hungry. It is mild dehydration. So the 8 glasses of water per day is an aide to controlling hunger. By eliminating false hunger pangs due to mild dehydration. In addition, water is very helpful in helping our bodies clean out the toxins that build up due to poor eating habits and the additives found in many prepared foods.
With regards to how the body secretes water while in the process of extreme effort/exercise. In any situation where we ask of our bodies much more than what can be considered normal. The body will react in specific ways. A good MFP example would be "Starvation mode". Where a person must eat more to lose weight. This "vasopressin" issue relates to such extreme exertions as found in Marathon running. A physical activity where the participant is very much aware of both the food and liquid consumption required to compete. As for the majority of people who are going from the couch to some form of moderate physical activity, this problem probably does not apply.
Note also, the recommended daily sodium intake for a healthy adult is between 2000 & 2500 mg (lets say a teaspoon). The average American takes in 2 - 3 x this amount daily. So a little extra water each day to help clean the pipe of sodium is probably not a bad thing!0 -
Can you post the exact link?
This can happen, but usually to poorly trained marathon runners who take much to long to complete the race and have not eaten properly before hand.
Drinking 64 oz of water per day will not kill you, it just might make you pee a lot! :P0 -
Thank everyone for your feedback!!! Here is the link to that article.
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scientificamerican.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dstrange-but-true-drinking-too-much-water-can-kill&h=cAQHWFHQ80 -
didnt someone die, i would say in the last year, from drinking too much water in some kind of radio show gig to win a Wii or something?
i dont remember the exact details.......0 -
Yea, that's from the article I mention I didn't copy the entire thing. It's true!0
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Here is the rest of the story from the start of the article since I letfed it out.
Strange but True: Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill
In a hydration-obsessed culture, people can and do drink themselves to death.
By Coco Ballantyne | June 21, 2007 |
KILLER WATER: Drinking water faster than your body can sweat, urinate or breathe it out can kill you.
Image: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/GREMLIN
Liquid H2O is the sine qua non of life. Making up about 66 percent of the human body, water runs through the blood, inhabits the cells, and lurks in the spaces between. At every moment water escapes the body through sweat, urination, defecation or exhaled breath, among other routes. Replacing these lost stores is essential but rehydration can be overdone. There is such a thing as a fatal water overdose Strange but True: Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill
In a hydration-obsessed culture, people can and do drink themselves to death.
By Coco Ballantyne | June 21, 2007 |
KILLER WATER: Drinking water faster than your body can sweat, urinate or breathe it out can kill you.
Image: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/GREMLIN
Liquid H2O is the sine qua non of life. Making up about 66 percent of the human body, water runs through the blood, inhabits the cells, and lurks in the spaces between. At every moment water escapes the body through sweat, urination, defecation or exhaled breath, among other routes. Replacing these lost stores is essential but rehydration can be overdone. There is such a thing as a fatal water overdose.
Earlier this year, a 28-year-old California woman died after competing in a radio station's on-air water-drinking contest. After downing some six liters of water in three hours in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" (Nintendo game console) contest, Jennifer Strange vomited, went home with a splitting headache, and died from so-called water intoxication.
There are many other tragic examples of death by water. In 2005 a fraternity hazing at California State University, Chico, left a 21-year-old man dead after he was forced to drink excessive amounts of water between rounds of push-ups in a cold basement. Club-goers taking MDMA ("ecstasy") have died after consuming copious amounts of water trying to rehydrate following long nights of dancing and sweating. Going overboard in attempts to rehydrate is also common among endurance athletes. A 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that close to one sixth of marathon runners develop some degree of hyponatremia, or dilution of the blood caused by drinking too much water.
Earlier this year, a 28-year-old California woman died after competing in a radio station's on-air water-drinking contest. After downing some six liters of water in three hours in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" (Nintendo game console) contest, Jennifer Strange vomited, went home with a splitting headache, and died from so-called water intoxication.
There are many other tragic examples of death by water. In 2005 a fraternity hazing at California State University, Chico, left a 21-year-old man dead after he was forced to drink excessive amounts of water between rounds of push-ups in a cold basement. Club-goers taking MDMA ("ecstasy") have died after consuming copious amounts of water trying to rehydrate following long nights of dancing and sweating. Going overboard in attempts to rehydrate is also common among endurance athletes. A 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that close to one sixth of marathon runners develop some degree of hyponatremia, or dilution of the blood caused by drinking too much water.0 -
The likelihood of anyone drinking that much water in that short of a time is very slim. This is not something you hear everyday.
Runners and other endurance athletes have a higher probability of suffering from water intoxification and that is because they are not replacing the electrolytes so there is a major imbalance............
The kidneys of a healthy adult can process fifteen liters of water a day! You are unlikely to suffer from water intoxication, even if you drink a lot of water, as long as you drink over time as opposed to intaking an enormous volume at one time. As a general guideline, most adults need about three quarts of fluid each day. Much of that water comes from food, so 8-12 eight ounce glasses a day is a common recommended intake. You may need more water if the weather is very warm or very dry, if you are exercising, or if you are taking certain medications. The bottom line is this: it's possible to drink too much water, but unless you are running a marathon or an infant, water intoxication is a very uncommon condition.0 -
I don't have a problem getting my salt. I LOVE it and am usually high on my sodium every day. I try to drink 1/2 my bodyweight in water ounces every day, epecially if I'm exercising and because I live in a very cold and dry environment. About a galon a day is where I feel best. Due to soda and high sodium foods, most of us are dehydrated and have the opposite challenge of not getting enough water. Drinking enough water can be tough if it's not part of your healthy habits already, but I wouldn't use this article as an excuse to not challenge yourself to hydrate. My bet is that more people suffer symptoms and even death from dehydration vs overhydration.0
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From personal experience, I routinely drink 1.5-2 gallons of water a day, and sometime even more. I exercise several times a week, and eat pretty well.
The only negative effect is having to visit the Men's room a lot.
The way to water intoxication to drink a lot of water, and not take in any electrolytes. That's when your cells become unbalanced.0
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