stupid question,how easy is it to die from water?

workoutgirl23

this may be a really stupid question. but i got some anxiety and i'm extremely paranoid about things. i read some where the other day, that drinking too much water/fluids can kill you. kike water Intoxication. i know its a rare thing. but ever since i heard about that, i'm freaked out to drink too much water. am i way over worrying about this? i'm sorry, i know stupid question.

workoutgirl23

Water Intoxication.

ayshamc

When I started my weight loss journey I thought the same thing....I was drinking no water at all and just diet soda's so I didn't know how much was too much water - it freaked me out a bit too!

I drink about 3L a day now and it's fine

workoutgirl23

people always say you would have to be really drinking a lot of water in a short period of time, to really have to worry about it. and what about soda. can you drink too much soda. its confusing. cuz soda is made from carbonated water, and it doesn't hydrate me, so i was wondering on that too. ?

tabulator32

Does it have alligators in it?

Spanntastic12

It's not easy to do. You would just have to keep going and going and you would definitely feel "full" before you got to that point.

Glowbee

If you're drinking -too- much water your body will let you know it. You feel -very- ill, your head absolutely aches, and you are extremely sick to your stomach. They call it water poisoning, and you definitely feel like you've been poisoned. It takes a very large amount to do this to yourself! Just drink ballpark of your daily recommendation, and you'll be fine. IMO this shouldn't be a concern at all for you

sl1ngsh0t

I'd pick another thing to worry and become anxious about. Really.

carld256

Hard, but not impossible.

Jeliwood

You'd have to drink like 2 gallons of water, maybe more, within an hour to even begin to worry about that. And before then you'd most likely vomit and stop. If you're just drinking a little too much your urine will be clear. If you're drinking 8 or 12 cups of water a day there is nothing you need to worry about.

Athena98501

I drink 16 glasses of water many days because I am that thirsty, and I've had one friend who drank 30+ (don't ask me why).

workoutgirl23

yea. i know its silly to worry about it. but i just can't get it out of my head now. but i'm not gonna stress about any more. i'm sure its fine.

Sox90716

Cases of hyponatremia are quite rare. New England Journal of Medicine has a good article about it occurring with marathon runners.

LorinaLynn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

Or in short: Don't enter any water-drinking-contests and don't drink only water if you're running a marathon, and you'll be fine.

kittyhasclaws

The kidneys can process 15-20 liters of water a day. As long as you're also getting sodium, magnesium and potassium in with it (you can get it all from the food you eat), you're fine. Water intoxication usually occurs only in infants and major athletes. Infants under six months get it if they are consuming a lot more fluid than just BM or formula. Athletes get it when they only hydrate without consuming the electrolytes when they've been sweating it out hard.

mermx

A healthy adult can process up to 15 litres of water a day if drank over the day.

8 - 12 glasses is recommended and more if a warm day. You are going to spread it out over the day as I think anyone would find it hard to drink it all in one go.

Water intoxication is really very rare so I don`t think you should worry about it. It is most likely to happen to babies or athletes if at all.

Just enjoy your water :-)

professorRAT

You really answered your own question; if it is rare then it must not be very easy to do.

Here are a few articles about it, if it makes you feel better: http://chemistry.about.com/cs/5/f/blwaterintox.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-water-intoxication.htm

neverstray

You'd have to basically drowned your body. I mean, unless you're a total freak, you're not going to do that. I cold see hat happening to someone with severe OCD or something. But, no one normal would ever do that to themselves. You'd feel it start to suffocate you before you did yourself in.

While its possible, it's more likely that you'll win the lottery first.

RedVelvetCurls

You can actually poison yourself with water, in the sense that your blood becomes more water than anything else and your blood cells burst, etc. But you need to drink an insane amount of water to even get to that level. When I was training in the psychiatric wards, we had patients that were on meds that made them constantly and desperately thirsty. They were high risk for water intoxication because they would actually just lie under a tap and pour the water into their mouths for as long as they could.

Don't worry about this, you aren't at any risk. Drink when you're thirsty, you'll be just fine.

workoutgirl23

thank you.

tinkermommc

my first thought was "if you inhale it, easy!"

But unless you are throwing back gallons of water in a short period you'll be fine! You'll get sick of trips to the restroom and therefore slow down drinking before you drink to the point of making yourself sick.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/water-intoxication.htm

Marillian

It isn't how much water, it's how fast. If you drink water over the course of a day, the kidneys can process 15 L of water. I doubt you drink anything near that amount. You would probably stop when you felt full or bloated.

As for soda, there is nothing of nutritional value in soda, so why even drink it?

Yes, you can drink too much of any liquid.

ValerieMartini2Olives

Water intoxication is EXTREMELY unlikely. There have only been a handful of documented cases of water intoxication.

smantha32

I think water poisoning mainly happens to children? Wouldn't an adult have to drink an insane amount of water to die from it?

smantha32

Does it have alligators in it?

this. :bigsmile:

texastango

It's not a stupid question and drinking too much water can cause significant problems:

I've personally seen a half dozen people in 20+years get into trouble. One died. So it's not common, but here's briefly what happens.

The first case was a runner in the Houston Marathon. He replaced his fluid loss (sweat/salt/water) with pure water instead of water and electrolytes. He drank a lot of water during the run. At some point he convulsed (had a seizure). He later died from Central Pontine Demyelinolysis (stripping of the coating off part of the brainstem) from rapid electrolyte shifts.

The second case I recall was a gentleman at M.D. Anderson Hospital who had a prostate biopsy because he was told by an outside hospital that he had cancer - it turned out he didn't. At any rate the sugeon told him to drink plenty of fluid to flush himself out..so he went right to the cafeteria and drank glass after glass after glass of water. Till he had a convulsion.

In both cases it was the rapid intake of plain water - and in the first case loss of salt too - that led to the rapid changes and drop in Sodium (normally 140 mg/dl) but in both these individuals their sodiums dropped markedly - first case to 108 and in the second case to 118 mg/dl.

So it does happen, but it's rare.

To borrow from Wikipedia:
At the onset of this condition, fluid outside the cells has an excessively low amount of solutes (such as sodium (hyponatremia) and other electrolytes) in comparison to that inside the cells causing the fluid to shift through (via osmosis) into the cells to balance its concentration. This causes the cells to swell. In the brain, this swelling increases intracranial pressure (ICP). It is this increase in pressure which leads to the first observable symptoms of water intoxication: headache, personality changes, changes in behavior, confusion, irritability, and drowsiness. These are sometimes followed by difficulty breathing during exertion, muscle weakness, twitching, or cramping, nausea, vomiting, thirst, and a dulled ability to perceive and interpret sensory information. As the condition persists papillary and vital signs may result including bradycardia and widened pulse pressure. The cells in the brain may swell to the point where blood flow is interrupted resulting in cerebral edema. Swollen brain cells may also apply pressure to the brain stem causing central nervous system dysfunction. Both cerebral edema and interference with the central nervous system are dangerous and could result in seizures, brain damage, coma or death.[4]