water intoxication

I can really only tell you from my own experience - it's rare, but it's possible. I've actually gone there myself. When I realized I was drinking my body weight in ounces of water within 6 hours, I realized that was the reason my legs and entire body, but mostly my legs, were bloated to the point of adding an extra 10 pounds. My body couldn't get rid of all the water!

Now, I drink a lot of water still, but only when I need it. My issue was I was bored at work, and my flavored water was yummy.

I'm not familiar with the term 'water intoxication'. I do know that there is a fine line between too little and too many salts/electrolytes in your system. If you are mostly an indoor person, you want to limit your salt intake - besides heart health issues, it causes water retention, etc. However, if you work outside and sweat freely, your body will sweat out the salts in your system, which causes your muscles to not talk to each other so well (plus probably a host of other issues). This is why you see athletes drink gatorade and other salty drinks, but most folk never need it. The times I work outside on a hot day, I may take a gatorade and dilute it by at least half. What the guy was describing above - 105 degree weather, outside sweating all day, etc - that is a good reason to eat salty foods and full-strength gatorade.

whoa! It's HALF! You should aim to drink HALF your body weight (in pounds), in ounces. So if you weight 180, you should aim to drink 90 ounces or about 11 cups.

Here's the thing that's great about our bodies...they let us know what's going on. If your pee is almost dark yellow and has a smell, that means you're dehydrated (or very nearly). If your pee is just barely yellow, that means you're fully hydrated. If it's clear, you're probably drinking too much water, or at least drinking it way too fast for the body to properly process it.

If you're really worried about it after researching why it happens, you can suppliment your fluids with drinks like gatorade to make sure you're replacing electrolytes. And yes, getting the proper amount of salt to replace some lost in sweat also helps. Same thing happens if you go the other way - too much sodium and you retain water because your body is out of balance and technically you're dehydrated. As soon as you drink enough water to bring back the balance, the water that was retained is released. Trust me, I've had this happen several times after a high sodium day and I'm in the bathroom getting rid of the water about once an hour!

It's hard to say what the right balance is because everyone's different. Some folks are fine with just getting their fluids from their foods with a little water on the side because they eat a lot of raw foods that still have their water content. Some folks eat a lot of processed foods which will have more sodium and less natural water content so they have to drink more water to bring it back to balance. Listen to your body, you'll figure it out.

Wiki article about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

The standard I use when deciding to eat salty foods on a hot day - if it tastes good, you probably need some. And by taste good, I don't mean, "Gee, salty-sweet is a yummy combination and I haven't had it on my diet in awhile, this seems like a fun day to try it again," or "Gee, my period is about to start, where are the french fries?" I mean, "Gee, I just ate a bite of pretzel, and now my head doesn't seem tight anymore!"

Times I realize I need salt (not saying this works for everyone, but works for me) - head feels tight, squinting more than usual in the daylight, feels like a headache is about to start, arms and legs start feeling heavy, air feels heavy when I breath. Then I drink dilute gatorade, and it all goes away, almost magically, within five minutes, oftentimes sooner. If I drink just water, the thirst never goes away. There reaches a point where gatorade doesn't taste good anymore, and I'm no longer thirsty. Then, if I am still outside, I cut back to a huge cup of water (my mug holds about three cups) with a fingerful of gatorade, mostly for flavor. This holds back further problems.

I can really only tell you from my own experience - it's rare, but it's possible. I've actually gone there myself. When I realized I was drinking my body weight in ounces of water within 6 hours, I realized that was the reason my legs and entire body, but mostly my legs, were bloated to the point of adding an extra 10 pounds. My body couldn't get rid of all the water!

Now, I drink a lot of water still, but only when I need it. My issue was I was bored at work, and my flavored water was yummy.

how can you tell when you have water intoxication? do you start to feel faint, bloated?
i guess a major factor i never thought about was the time period of how i consumed water! i usually try to start off the day drinking from 4-6 cups of water, and by the end of the day i'd be drinking until i reach between 14-20 cups of water. (20 cups is 160 oz)
is this too much? i am 159 pounds right now

I knew partly because I weighed 112 llbs and drank over 80 oz...during work! I still had my workout that night! Plus, yes, I was very bloated. More than I've ever been from a workout. And not just bloated, but my limbs felt very heavy. Using process of elimination, after drinking even more water for days to try to get rid of the bloat, thinking I wasn't getting ENOUGH water...I realized what it was.

Yes, half your weight in oz is the recommended amount, but listen to your body. Drink when you're thirsty. Drink more during workouts. Trust your body.

Go by urine color, not by guidelines. If your urine is pale yellow, you are sufficiently hydrated. If it's dark yellow, you need more water. And make sure to replace your electrolytes as well.

In general, water intoxication only happens in fairly unusual circumstances (strong heat waves, water-drinking contests, marathons, etc.).

I had a friend who almost died from water intoxication. He basically drank so much water that he depleted his body of sodium. Was taken to hospital and had to slowly bring his sodium levels back up via drip feed for several days.

It is rare but can happen. Trust your body , when it says you are thirsty drink water.

First, a definition: Water intoxication is the intake of so much water at one time with so little electrolytes (sodium, potassium, etc) in your system that the water dilutes the electrolytes. The result is that nutrients cannot be delivered to tissues, and it starts affecting bodily function. You can get dizzy, you can pass out, and you can die. It's a serious problem, but it's also a lot rarer than a lot of people seem to worry about.

This is usually caused by one of two things:

1. Someone performing at a very high athletic level (marathon, 100-mile bike ride, etc) who has sweat out most of their electrolytes, and uses a large amount of pure water to try to rehydrate. Most athletes are smart enough to eat something or use an electrolyte-enhanced drink like Gatorade, which replaces the electrolytes while also hydrating. Some aren't, and there are rare cases where people have died of it. One was a young military recruit in Texas who worked all day in the desert sun in full BDUs with no food and drank 5 gallons of water in an hour to rehydrate. Several marathon runners.

2. Someone who has anorexia or is avoiding foods with electrolytes to a ridiculous extent and is not taking in enough electrolytes to replace those that are metabolized during daily activity, then drinks a lot of water.

If you're drinking less than a half gallon of water every hour and do not exceed 4 gallons of water in a a day (2 gallons to be safe, and that's still FOUR TIMES the standard 64-ounce recommendation), and you're eating food with electrolytes in normal proportions, you have NOTHING to worry about in terms of water intoxication.

If you feel bloated, that's NOT water intoxication. That's your body having trouble processing water, or too much sodium causing your body to retain water, or something unrelated to your water intake entirely.

So, to be absolutely safe, don't guzzle down more than about 16 ounces of water in any 15 minute interval, and no more than 32 ounces an hour, especially if you've been working out and sweating a lot recently. Make sure you have a 100-calorie snack with some potassium and sodium every hour of intense activity or drink a mouthful or two of sports drink (when I'm out for a multi-hour bike ride, I'll fill my water bottle with a mix of 3/4 water, 1/4 Gatorade). Try to limit your intake to 2 gallons of water a day, maximum, and if excessive activity forces you to exceed that intake make sure some of it is in the form of sports drinks.

There's no need to carry Gatorade from meeting to meeting because you are drinking a gallon of water a day. Real water intoxication is WAY beyond that level.

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As far as "how much water should I drink?", you'll get all sorts of advice, but the reality is that your body has an easy color test to tell you if you're getting enough. The color of your urine will easily indicate your hydration level. Then there's no ambiguity.

- If your urine is CLEAR and COLORLESS, you're drinking too much water. This is harmless (up to about 2 gallons of water a day for most people), but you can cut back a bit if you like. Try cutting back by 1-2 glasses a day, and keep each level for a couple of days before cutting back further. Or start at the usual recommendation of 8 8oz glasses and go from there.

- If your urine is PALE YELLOW and you can easily see through, you're perfect.

- If your urine is BRIGHT YELLOW, drink 1-2 additional glasses of water that day, re-test the next day.

- If your urine is AMBER, DARK YELLOW, or CLOUDY, drink 2-3 additional glasses of water that day, re-test the next day.

If you cannot get your urine to pale yellow or clear within a week and you're drinking 10-12 8oz glasses of water a day, see your doctor - you may have an infection or something may be wrong.