Why is too much water dangerous?
By paradisesuns
@paradisesuns (1754)
United States
March 19, 2007 4:35pm CST
Contrary to conventional wisdom, drinking too much water may be harmful to your health. If you drink too much water, eventually the kidneys will not be able to work fast enough to remove sufficient amounts from the body. After the recent death of a woman engaged in a water-drinking contest was published, there have been many explanations for the “water intoxication.”
According to Professor Robert Forrest, a consultant in Clinical Chemistry and Forensic Toxicology at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield (UK), “If you put too much water…the cells will swell,” he says. This swelling is a problem in the brain. As the brain is squeezed, it compresses vital regions regulating functions such as breathing." Eventually these functions will be impaired and you are likely to stop breathing and die.
3 people like this
4 responses
@Willowlady (10657)
• United States
20 Mar 07
We are becoming weaker since we are becoming less active. Yes too much of anything can be detrimental. So balance is key as it always is. You bring an example of an extreme and again if we were not becoming weaker as a society we would not have half the problems we have now. We need to learn balance in all we do and not just in drinking water.
2 people like this
@APMorison (424)
• United States
19 Mar 07
Taking in more of Any Substance than your body can efficiently use is dangerous.
We are told that 8 glasses of water per day is good - yes - that's normally quantified as 8 8 ounce glasses of water - so 32 ounces or half a gallon/approx 2 liters per day.
Another point is that this is part Urban Myth and only a basic guideline (check it out on snopes.com).
There is, in fact, no AMA approved minimum or maximum because each body uses and eliminates water at a slightly different rate. The main problem with water toxicity is that too much water in the system dilutes the blood and the electrolyte balance in the body. Without the electrolytes being at the right concentration the heart does not function properly. If the blood is too dilute it does not carry oxygen properly. The kidneys can only process so much fluid in a given amount of time, if you take in too much it floods the body with the excess fluid and the cells become overloaded. The lungs can end up full of fluid. If over taxed the kidneys shut down and then the fluid has no where to go but the other body tissues. You can drown in consumed water if you take in too much.
Infants in swimming classes are at risk for water toxicity so they are limited to the number of minutes and frequency per week for their classes - babies swallow a lot of water in the pool, so they have to be watched closely.
@huggiebear22 (2007)
• Canada
21 Mar 07
It is like anything else your body can only handle so much befroe it becomes toxic to the body ther are cases of peopel drinking so much water that it makes them really sick or can even kill them
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