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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Wausau, WI
Posts: 13,383
S/C/G: SW:394/310/180
Height: 5'6"
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My mom nearly died because she believed the myths about water. She was only drinking a little over a gallon of fluid a day, but it was too much and she was hospitalized for water intoxication (which damaged her kidneys permanently).
The last thing Americans need is to be fed lies, even if the lies occasionally help some people accidentally.
Extra water isn't going to hurt most people. It can even help some, but it's important to know what is and isn't true.
My mom believed (because her Weight Watcher's leader told her so) that she had to "compensate" for the dehydrating effects of her two to three cups of coffee with four to six additional glasses of water. She was also told that anything that wasn't "pure water" didn't really count, so the milk, soup, watermelon and other high-water fruits and vegetables didn't count either.
She was in good health except for mild high blood pressure. The blood pressure medication was potassium sparing (meaning that sodium would be spared, and sodium would be lost at a higher rate). This usually makes sense because the American diet is so high in sodium and so low in potassium, that it is better to save the potassium than the sodium (sodium and potassium work in such a way that if you increase potassium, it depelets sodium, and vice versa). My mom was eating a low-sodium diet - probably lower than even most sodium-restricted diets because for as longas I can remember, we never used much salt in the home, even at the table. Salt was never on the table unless we had raw tomatoes, corn or kohlrabi from the garden.
The SAD is so high in sodium, it's usually extremely difficult to drink enough water to wash enough sodium out of your body. At least it has been until the dieting-related water myths came on the scene. The kidney specialist called in on my mom's case said it was once rare for any doctor - even kidney specialists to see more than a case or two of water intoxication in their entire years of practice. Now they see several cases a year, and more are occuring among healthy, "normal" individuals than ever before. At one time doctors were taught (even in graduate developmental psychology courses I was taught - and passed on the false information when I taught in community college classes) that water intoxication only occured in people with severe existing kidney disease, extreme long-distance athletes, mentally ill (with a compulsive water drinking fixation), and fools trying to pass drugscreens by chugging gallons of water.
Everyone else was safe (or so we thought).
Drink all the water you want, but if you're going to drink more than a gallon a day, be aware of the symptoms of water intoxication, so that if you experience them you don't drop dead before you're diagnosed. The symptoms are vague enough that they could be a thousand other things. And even if you get to the hospital, the doctors may not look for it, because they're not expecting to find it.
You can have a heart attack before anyone guesses what's wrong.
If you're eating processed food or bucket-loads of salt from other sources, you may never be at risk - but the people at highest risk may be the peoplee trying to eat and be healthier - and are more likely to be avoiding those processed foods and other sources of excess sodium.
If you're eating whole, unadulterated foods you don't need to be drinking more than a gallon of fluids every day. If you're drinking alot of fluids, but they're not "plain" water, it's important to know that they do count.
Water can be helpful for health and dieting, but (although Americans hate to admit in so many ways) there are few things that are exempt from the "too much of a good thing" rule.
I have some of the same risk factors that my mother does (mild high blood pressure, a dislike for salty foods, and a tendency towards low blood sodium levels), and I've been told I shouldn't drink more than 3 liters of fluids. Sometimes I do. Though I try to be aware of what I'm doing, and if it's been a high fluid day I try to make sure I've had a little extra salt. That's not a precaution most people have to take, but I do. Before I have any surgery, I have to have my sodium levels checked (on one occasion I had to take sodium supplements before they could do the surgery). I was told to always remember this and remind any medical staff in the future to run the tests, because they wouldn't know to look for it, because it's relatively rare. Low-sodium levels, especially during surgery can result in cardiac arrest (and my mother when she was hospitalized for the water intoxication, the ER doctor thought she was having a heart attack because her hear rate was so irregular. Getting her blood chemistry and heart functioning normally was why she was hospitalized so long).
Water is great for a lot of things. It can be a good appetite suppresant. I also use it to plump up my veins before blood draws as already mentioned, but it is important to understand (especially with the water myths and where they can lead) the ups and down sides. We neeed to be aware of the truthful facts so we can differentiate and evaluate signs and symptoms of "not enough" and "too much."
It's not rocket science, and it can be taught. The symptoms of dehydration and the symptoms of overhydration aren't difficult to learn (except that people want easy answers rather than guidelines by which they can judiciously apply common sense).
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Definitely not trying to be contrary. I know that a lot of people dislike drinking water and am willing to agree that weight loss is possible without drowning yourself.
