Well, I've recently pretty much given up diet soda and started drinking water. I always thought 8 glasses a day was the rule, but I've been reading about something called "water intoxication" and it's seriously scary.
How much water do you all drink during the day and have you heard anything about drinking too much?
I consistently drink between 100-110 ounces of water a day. I've drank that much for years and have never had an issue with it. I think you have to drink a huge amount of water in a short period of time for it to be an issue.
I drink all my fluids as coffee, tea, milk (with cereal), or juice/sparkling water mixture. I'm guessing my total fluid intake is about 7 cups per day. I never drink just for the sake of meeting a quota.
Death of a contestant in KDND radio contestOn January 12, 2007, a listener named Jennifer Strange, 28, died of water intoxication hours after taking part in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest in which KDND promised a Wii video game system for the winner. At the time, the Nintendo console was very popular and sought-after but also near impossible to find in North America. In the competition, contestants were asked to drink as much water as they could without urinating. The contestant able to hold the most water would be named the winner.
According to contest participants, 17 to 20 contestants took part in the competition in a room at KDND's studios. The contest broadcast during the station's "Morning Rave" program began around 6:15 a.m. as contestants were each handed eight-ounce (240-mL) water bottles to drink at 15-minute intervals. Contestants also said that as the contest progressed, they were given increasingly large quantities of water to drink. Some later remarked on the physical discomfort they suffered during and following the event.
The Sacramento Bee released audio clips from the morning show indicating that the DJs were aware of the death of Matthew Carrington by water intoxication. At one point, a caller who was a co-worker of Nurse Practitioner Judy Linder called the station and informed the DJs that the contest could be dangerous and that someone could die. The DJs responded by saying "we're aware of that," and joked that the contestants had signed releases and couldn't file a lawsuit. However, according to a contestant, the waivers addressed only publicity issues and made no mention of health or safety concerns. The DJs also joked about Strange's distended belly, joking that she looked three months pregnant.
After the contest, Strange spoke to a co-worker by telephone, indicating she was on her way home and in extreme pain, suffering from what appeared to be an intense headache. The co-worker contacted Strange's mother, who went to her home an hour later to find her daughter dead.
I aim for 100 ounces a day. I'm on Medifast, which makes you thirsty, so I'm not drinking much more water than I used to, I'm just keeping track of it.
i read somewhere that if your pee still has a slight yellowish tint to it, you are not in danger of water intoxication, though i forget where, and it might not be completely accurate.
i drink 100ish oz of water a day sometimes 80, sometimes 120. depends on how many times i refill my 20oz mug, how much i exercise, and how early or late i wake up or go to bed.
The only time i ever force myself to drink water is when, like this morning, i noticed i was retaining water. I was mad because i didn't pee as much as normally do (a sign that i'm retaining water...which pisses me off because i know my weight will be up from water retention). so i drank a bunch (like 24 oz) until i started peeing.
I think you'd really have to be trying to hurt yourself if you get to the point of 'water intoxication'. I personally don't track my fluid intake, but I make sure I always have water or tea with me to sip on to avoid becoming dehydrated.
When I started drinking a lot of water, I was also worried about water intoxication so you're not alone in worrying about it. I drink between 80 and 120 ounces a day, with the except of a mug or two of plain hot tea, water is all I drink. I think you'll be fine as long as you aren't forcing yourself to chug glass after glass. I drink 10-20 ounces with breakfast at 7. I drink 8-16 ounces of hot tea and 20 ounces of water before 10:30. I drink another 20 ounces before 12:30. I drink another 20 before 3. I'll drink 10-20 ounces with dinner and sometimes I have 10-20 ounces before bed.
I worked my way up to this much water and the times I have put here aren't a deadline, they just happen to be when I finish my water 95% of the time. Some days, though rare, I'll only drink about 60 ounces. Sometimes I'll drink more. Depends on what I feel like. I've been doing this for months and I certainly notice a difference if I don't get my water. Since I started drinking this much, I seem to need a drink every hour or so. Like right now, I'm a bit parched and it's 4:15. I ran out of my afternoon water at 2:30 and I don't drink past 3 because I have an hour commute home.
Just listen to your body. If you want to drink 100oz a day, I'd say take a few weeks and work up to it if you're concerned about water intoxication. Replacing my drinks with water was probably one of the best things I've ever done for myself. Not a single regret and it's super easy once you adjust.
I never really worry about my water intake (unless I'm working out or it's really hot out). We get a lot from our foods and all fluids, and it all counts.
But I do find that sometimes drinking water or tea makes me less hungry.
My mother was hospitalized for water intoxication a few years ago, and I learned a lot about it then (especially since I'm at risk as well, because I share the same risk factors that my mother had - the first three that I list below). I don't want to scare anyone by posting what I learned, so keep in mind that if you don't have any of the risk factors, the odds of ever encountering problems with water overdose are slim to none.
...but if you're curious, I'll summarize what we learned:
The most common risk factors:
1. Drinking more than a gallon of fluid daily over a prolonged period, or drinking large amounts of water over a short period (both can occur. My mother didn't guzzle gallons of water, so her case probably occured over time).
2. Eating a very low-sodium diet (our family always has)
3. Some medications, especially those for blood pressure and kidney issues, such as potassium sparing (and this sodium depleting) diuretic blood pressure medications are. There are sodium-sparing (potassium depleting) diuretics, but they're rarely used, because the American diet is far higher in sodium than potassium, so they're the logical choice.
4. Intense exercise, especially extreme sports and marathon (even gatorade and other electrolyte solutions may not replace the sodium fast enough).
5. An illness, such as a cold or flu virus that can dehydrate a person can put them "over the edge," if their sodium levels were depleted by the virus (The doctor speculated that my mom's hypo natremia may have been triggered by a stomach flu, or even the cold/sinus infection she had a couple weeks earlier.
6. Some types of kidney disease (which a person may or may not be aware of).
At the time of my mother's hospitialization, she was a Weight Watchers member. Her WW leader had told the group that for every cup of coffee they drank, they should drink one or two cups of water and that this didn't count towards their water requirements for the day (this wasn't WW's official position, this was just something that leader had read or heard somewhere).
Mom didn't guzzle a large amount of water suddenly, but she was drinking several cups of coffee, a couple glasses of milk, plus her 8 - 10 glasses of water (just over a gallon of liquids per day).
The kidney specialist called in, taught us a lot about water intoxication.
Most people aren't at risk, but the risk is growing with all of the "water myths" that have become popular especially in the dieting and exercise communities.
The danger of water poisoning is that the water dilutes the blood, washing away sodium and other electrolytes. Sodium is the most commonly lost electrolyte (water poisoning is also called hypo natremia which means low levels of sodium in the blood). The biggest danger of hypo natremia is cardiac arrest.
This sodium loss can be gradual (as in Mom's case, because she wasn't guzzling gallons quickly) or it can be sudden (such as the radio contest lady or folks who try to clean their urine for a drug test by guzzling gallons of water thinking they can dilute their urine, and rid themselves of the drugs they don't want to appear in the drug test).
Most Americans eat too much salt and don't drink enough liquids to be at serious risk for hypo nutremia, though it's getting more common as more people are drinking more and more water.
The kidney specialist told us that for most people, thirst really is a reliable guide for most people. And that "everything counts," he pointed out that if coffee were as dehydrating as the myths claimed, then people who drink coffee as their only beverage (and there are many) would die of dehydration, and they don't. He even pointed out that in the Middle Ages no one drank "plain water" because plain water wasn't safe. Even children drank beers, wines, and ciders because if they contained water, the water was boiled first in the beer making process. He told us that the human body is perfectly able to use liquids from all sources, and we didn't need the water to be in "pure" form (in fact, he told us that no water is in pure form, it all has dissolved "stuff" in it - except for distilled water and people probably shouldn't drink much distilled water because it could in theory eventually leach calcium and other minerals from the body). He told us that even alcoholic beverages (except for the hardest alcohols), even beer, wine, and most mixed drinks were not dehydrating enough to require "extra" fluids and contributed at least some liquid to our daily fluid needs.
He even told us that it is possible to get enough liquids from food alone that a person wouldn't have to drink anything at all (but that most people don't eat nearly enough fresh fruit and vegetables for that to be possible in our country).
He said that chronic dehydration really isn't nearly as common as "common wisdom" (urban legend) suggests. For healthy people, thirst really is an adequate indicator.
I asked about the guideline of half ounce per pound of body weight. He said that would work for normal weight people, but not very overweight folks, because large people didn't have proportionately larger kidneys and didn't need much more if any water than thinner folks. At the time, I weighed nearly 400 lbs, and had the same risk factors as my mother. At 200 ounces that would be more than a gallon and a half of water per day, which he said was really way too much. He said that it would be rare for any average person to need more than 3 quarts of water, and that's what he suggested for me as my upper limit
Like my mother, I am on blood pressure medications, I eat a relatively low-sodium diet, and I still often drink more than a gallon of fluids per day (though I try to make sure that I've had some salt in my diet on days that I'm drinking more than 3 quarts. I do tend towards low blood levels of sodium and have my blood levels checked every 3 months. If the sodium level is particularly low, my doctor will recommend eating a little more salt for a few days (and before surgery once I had to take sodium supplements).
I drink anywhere from 100 to 120 ounces a day and I'm good to go, and my docs agree. I worked up to that, though, it wasn't overnight and the first few weeks were filled with trips to the ladies room!
ETA: I agree that I do feel it when I don't "get my water in".... and, sorry if this is TMI, lol, but my pee is always a nice shade of lemonade... My doc, and my girly part doc, both agree that as long as its lemonade, I'm good to go.
I have to be watchful and take care of my kidneys, because my mom had some kidney-related-health problems.
Last edited by kateleestar; 02-29-2012 at 08:18 AM.
How much water and can you overdo it?
