What happens if you get water intoxication




















These include:. Other conditions and drugs can cause increased water intake by making you extremely thirsty. Overhydration is more common among endurance athletes who drink large amounts of water before and during exercise. It has been reported among:. This condition is also more likely in people with kidney or liver disease.

It can also affect people with heart failure. You may not recognize symptoms of overhydration in its early stages. As the condition progresses, common symptoms include:.

Untreated overhydration can lead to dangerously low levels of sodium in your blood. This can cause more severe symptoms, such as:. Your doctor will ask about your medical history to find out if your symptoms are caused by overhydration or another condition.

The doctor will also perform a physical examination , and they may order blood and urine tests. Treatments may include:. Endurance athletes can reduce the risk of overhydration by weighing themselves before and after a race. This helps determine how much water they have lost and need to replenish. It is recommended to drink 16 to 20 ounces of fluid for every pound lost.

While exercising, try to drink 2 to 4 cups of fluid per hour. If exercising longer than an hour, sports beverages are also an option. These drinks contain sugar, along with electrolytes such as sodium and potassium , which you lose in sweat. Let thirst also guide you when exercising. Shop for sports beverages. If you have a medical condition such as diabetes, CHF, or kidney disease, talk to your doctor about the best treatments.

This could be a sign of a medical problem that needs to be treated. Consequently, an excess of water builds up in the bloodstream. This excess water has nowhere to go, so it leaves the blood and moves into the cells. The result is swelling in the cells, which is extremely dangerous in the brain. Excessive water consumption is one cause, although hyponatremia caused by overconsumption alone is fairly uncommon.

For instance, in , a California woman succumbed to water intoxication after participating in a radio-station sponsored water-drinking contest. She consumed roughly 6 liters of water over a three-hour period.

For this reason, the risk for hyponatremia is greater for marathon runners and triathletes. At the same time, electrolytes are being lost through sweat. Then, when an athlete drinks a large amount of water during or following a competition, that athlete is more likely to develop a net water gain. Thus, the balance of electrolytes and water in the bloodstream falls out of line.

The right amount differs, depending on factors such as body weight , level of physical activity, the climate, and whether they are breastfeeding. In , The National Academy of Medicine recommended that women aged 19—30 consume around 2. However, this was not based on research. Relying on thirst may not work for everyone.

Athletes, older adults, and pregnant women, for example, may need to drink more water each day. To estimate the right amount, it can help to consider calories. If a person needs 2, calories per day, they should also consume 2, milliliters of water per day. Read more about daily water intake recommendations here. Drinking too much water can lead to water intoxication. This is rare and tends to develop among endurance athletes and soldiers.

There are no official guidelines about how much water to drink. To avoid water intoxication, some sources recommend drinking no more than 0. Drinking water is often overlooked as a necessary part of staying healthy. The body and blood are largely made of water, and so we need a lot of fluid…. Many automatic processes in the body run on small electric currents, and electrolytes provide this charge. Electrolytes are present throughout the…. Drinking water at any time of day helps someone to rehydrate.

However, if they drink it at certain times of the day, there may be other consequences. Drinking raw water is a relatively new health phenomenon, but are the rumors about its health benefits true, or is it dangerous? Find out here. Dark-colored urine and thirst are classic signs that someone is dehydrated. The simple solution is to drink more.

But when dehydration occurs in the…. There is such a thing as a fatal water overdose. Earlier this year, a 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 a fraternity hazing at California State University, Chico, left a 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 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.

Hyponatremia, a word cobbled together from Latin and Greek roots, translates as "insufficient salt in the blood. 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.



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