In a hydration-obsessed culture, people can and do drink themselves to death.
By "Coco Ballantyne "
Liquid H2O is the sine qua non of life . Making up about 66 percent of the human body , the water passes through the blood , cells , and inhabits lurks in the spaces between . At any time, the body of water escapes through sweat, urine , feces, or exhaled air, among other routes . Replacing these lost stores is essential but rehydration can be overdone . There is such a thing as a fatal overdose of water
Earlier this year , a 28 -year-old California woman deceased after competing in the transmitter on-air water - drinking contest . After beating about 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 2005, a fraternity hazing was at California State University Chico , left a 21 - year-old man died after he was forced to carry large amounts of water between rounds of push - to drink in a cold basement ups . Club Visitors MDMA ( " ecstasy " ) are deceased after consuming large amounts of water trying to rehydrate after long nights dancing and sweating . Overboard in attempting to rehydrate is also common in endurance athletes . A 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that nearly one -sixth of marathon runners develop some degree of hyponatremia or thinning of the blood caused by drinking too much water .
Hyponatremia , a word cobbled together from Latin and Greek roots , translates Quantitatively speaking , as " insufficient salt in the blood . " Means having a blood sodium concentration below 135 millimoles per liter, or about 0.4 grams per liter , the normal concentration somewhere between 135 and 145 millimoles per liter lie . Severe cases of hyponatremia can lead to water intoxication , a disease whose symptoms include headache , fatigue , nausea , vomiting , frequent urination and mental disorientation .
Also see:When Half a Brain Is Better than a Whole One
In humans , the kidneys , the amount of water, salts and other dissolved substances leave the body through blood by the millions of seven twisted tubules. When a person drinks too much water in a short time , the kidneys can not flush it fast enough and the blood soaked . Located in areas where the concentration of salt and other dissolved substances is higher , the excess water leaves the blood and eventually enters the cells , which swell like balloons to accommodate it.
Most of the cells have to stretch, since they are embedded in the flexible tissues such as fat and muscle , but that space is not the case for neurons. Brain cells are tightly packed in a rigid boney cage , skull , and they have to share this space with blood and cerebrospinal fluid , explains Wolfgang Liedtke , a clinical neuroscientist at Duke University Medical Center. " Inside the skull is almost zero room to expand and swell , " he says.
Thus, cerebral edema , or swelling , are disastrous . "Rapid and severe hyponatremia causes water in brain cells leads to swelling of the brains which manifests as seizures, coma , respiratory arrest , brain stem herniation and death ," said Mr. Amin Arnaout head of nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Where people have the idea that guzzling huge amounts of water is healthy ? A few years ago Heinz Valtin , a kidney specialist at Dartmouth Medical School , decided to determine whether the common advice to drink eight to eight - ounce glasses of water per day than scientific research. After washing, the peer - reviewed literature , Valtin concluded that there are no scientific studies support the "eight x eight " statement (for healthy adults living in temperate climates and doing mild exercise ) . In fact , drinking this might be , both in precipitating potentially dangerous hyponatremia and exposure to pollutants , and also in making many people damaging much or more " feel guilty for not he wrote enough to drink , " . in his 2002 review for the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory , Integrative and Comparative Physiology and since he published his findings , Valtin says " no scientific report published in a peer - reviewed publication has proved the contrary . "
Most cases of water intoxication does not result from simply drinking too much water , says Joseph Verbalis , chairman of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center . It is usually a combination of excessive fluid intake and increased secretion of vasopressin ( also called antidiuretic hormone ) , he explains . Produced by the hypothalamus into the bloodstream and secreted by the pituitary gland , vasopressin instructs the kidneys in order to save water. The secretion increases during periods of physical stress - during a marathon , for example - and can cause the body to save , even if a person is drinking large amounts of water .
Every hour , a healthy kidney to excrete rest 800 to 1000 milliliters , or 0.21 to 0.26 liter , water, and so a person can drink water at a rate of 800 to 1000 milliliters per hour without experiencing a net gain in water , Verbalis explains . If that same person running a marathon , but the stress of the situation will increase vasopressin , reducing excretory capacity of the kidney to as low as 100 milliliters per hour . Drinking 800 to 1000 ml of water per hour under these conditions may result in a net gain in the water , even with a lot of sweat , he says.
While exercising , "you have to balance what you drink with what you sweat , " and that includes sports drinks , which can also cause problems when consumed in excess , advises Verbalis hyponatraemia. " If you sweat 500 milliliters per hour , which is what you need to drink . "
However, the measurement of sweat output is not easy. How can a marathon runner, or a person , decide to consume ? Much water As long as you are healthy and equipped with a thirst barometer untouched by age or mind-altering drugs , follow the advice Verbalis ' s are " drink to your thirst . It is the best indicator . "
By "Coco Ballantyne "
Liquid H2O is the sine qua non of life . Making up about 66 percent of the human body , the water passes through the blood , cells , and inhabits lurks in the spaces between . At any time, the body of water escapes through sweat, urine , feces, or exhaled air, among other routes . Replacing these lost stores is essential but rehydration can be overdone . There is such a thing as a fatal overdose of water
Earlier this year , a 28 -year-old California woman deceased after competing in the transmitter on-air water - drinking contest . After beating about 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 2005, a fraternity hazing was at California State University Chico , left a 21 - year-old man died after he was forced to carry large amounts of water between rounds of push - to drink in a cold basement ups . Club Visitors MDMA ( " ecstasy " ) are deceased after consuming large amounts of water trying to rehydrate after long nights dancing and sweating . Overboard in attempting to rehydrate is also common in endurance athletes . A 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that nearly one -sixth of marathon runners develop some degree of hyponatremia or thinning of the blood caused by drinking too much water .
Hyponatremia , a word cobbled together from Latin and Greek roots , translates Quantitatively speaking , as " insufficient salt in the blood . " Means having a blood sodium concentration below 135 millimoles per liter, or about 0.4 grams per liter , the normal concentration somewhere between 135 and 145 millimoles per liter lie . Severe cases of hyponatremia can lead to water intoxication , a disease whose symptoms include headache , fatigue , nausea , vomiting , frequent urination and mental disorientation .
Also see:When Half a Brain Is Better than a Whole One
In humans , the kidneys , the amount of water, salts and other dissolved substances leave the body through blood by the millions of seven twisted tubules. When a person drinks too much water in a short time , the kidneys can not flush it fast enough and the blood soaked . Located in areas where the concentration of salt and other dissolved substances is higher , the excess water leaves the blood and eventually enters the cells , which swell like balloons to accommodate it.
Most of the cells have to stretch, since they are embedded in the flexible tissues such as fat and muscle , but that space is not the case for neurons. Brain cells are tightly packed in a rigid boney cage , skull , and they have to share this space with blood and cerebrospinal fluid , explains Wolfgang Liedtke , a clinical neuroscientist at Duke University Medical Center. " Inside the skull is almost zero room to expand and swell , " he says.
Thus, cerebral edema , or swelling , are disastrous . "Rapid and severe hyponatremia causes water in brain cells leads to swelling of the brains which manifests as seizures, coma , respiratory arrest , brain stem herniation and death ," said Mr. Amin Arnaout head of nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Where people have the idea that guzzling huge amounts of water is healthy ? A few years ago Heinz Valtin , a kidney specialist at Dartmouth Medical School , decided to determine whether the common advice to drink eight to eight - ounce glasses of water per day than scientific research. After washing, the peer - reviewed literature , Valtin concluded that there are no scientific studies support the "eight x eight " statement (for healthy adults living in temperate climates and doing mild exercise ) . In fact , drinking this might be , both in precipitating potentially dangerous hyponatremia and exposure to pollutants , and also in making many people damaging much or more " feel guilty for not he wrote enough to drink , " . in his 2002 review for the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory , Integrative and Comparative Physiology and since he published his findings , Valtin says " no scientific report published in a peer - reviewed publication has proved the contrary . "
Most cases of water intoxication does not result from simply drinking too much water , says Joseph Verbalis , chairman of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center . It is usually a combination of excessive fluid intake and increased secretion of vasopressin ( also called antidiuretic hormone ) , he explains . Produced by the hypothalamus into the bloodstream and secreted by the pituitary gland , vasopressin instructs the kidneys in order to save water. The secretion increases during periods of physical stress - during a marathon , for example - and can cause the body to save , even if a person is drinking large amounts of water .
Every hour , a healthy kidney to excrete rest 800 to 1000 milliliters , or 0.21 to 0.26 liter , water, and so a person can drink water at a rate of 800 to 1000 milliliters per hour without experiencing a net gain in water , Verbalis explains . If that same person running a marathon , but the stress of the situation will increase vasopressin , reducing excretory capacity of the kidney to as low as 100 milliliters per hour . Drinking 800 to 1000 ml of water per hour under these conditions may result in a net gain in the water , even with a lot of sweat , he says.
While exercising , "you have to balance what you drink with what you sweat , " and that includes sports drinks , which can also cause problems when consumed in excess , advises Verbalis hyponatraemia. " If you sweat 500 milliliters per hour , which is what you need to drink . "
However, the measurement of sweat output is not easy. How can a marathon runner, or a person , decide to consume ? Much water As long as you are healthy and equipped with a thirst barometer untouched by age or mind-altering drugs , follow the advice Verbalis ' s are " drink to your thirst . It is the best indicator . "
