Women dies from drinking too much water

It is a very sad case indeed and I am sorry for anyone who feels it necessary to go to such extremes in order to lose weight. The diet she was on seems to have been a low-calorie diet and while it is necessary to make sure that one drinks enough especially when on a diet, she clearly did not read the instructions properly. In fact, drinking more water than necessary can actually cause one to put on weight if there is a tendency towards water retention.

In this case, I believe that there might have been other factors involved besides the four litres (approximately 7 UK pints) that she apparently drank in two hours. It says that she later vomited, so clearly not all of the water she drank went into her system. I have known people to drink 7 pints (of beer) and more in a night, maybe 3 or 4 hours, on a regular basis. I am not going to pretend that that is a good thing (especially because of the alcohol) but I think it shows that everyone's metabolism is different!

I am reminded somewhat of the "dihydrogen monoxide" hoax that gets sent around periodically. ("Dihydrogen monoxide" sounds scary and like a dangerous chemical but it's only a way of saying H2O!).

Wikipedia says about water intoxication: "Water intoxication (also known as hyperhydration or water poisoning) is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by over-consumption of water. Normal, healthy (both physically and nutritionally) individuals have little to worry about accidentally consuming too much water. Nearly all deaths related to water intoxication in normal individuals have resulted either from water drinking contests, in which individuals attempt to consume more than 10 liters (10.5 quarts) of water over the course of just a few minutes, or long bouts of intensive exercise during which electrolytes are not properly replenished, yet massive amounts of fluid are still consumed. "

At the end of the article, this particular case is given as one of the "Notable Cases". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

I have heard of people dying from drinking to much water to fast and there bodies not being able to handle it. I could never drink anywhere close to that amount of water so I don't really have a fear of it. I don't know why someone would have thought this would help you diet since dieting like that can actually cause you to retain water, bloat, lose muscle tone so in the end you could look worse than when you started. I would rather have a few extra pounds with a good muscle tone than end up looking like I was all swelled up but that is just me. People need to stick to good ole exercising to lose weight.

It really depends on the body condition of a person. I need a lot of water. I drink around 4 litres a day. If I drink anything less than that, I fall sick easily. I'll get sore throat and fever.
4 litres in under 2 hours is too much for anyone. The only exception might be if the person has sweat a lot. Other than that, there's no need to drink so much water.
It's no good to drink too much water right before, during and after meal. Too much water will dilute the acids in the stomach and make digestion less efficient. Yes, drinking water may make one feel full but we must drink water at the right time, not all the time.