Is there such a thing as too much water?
I drink tea all day long. And go to the bathroom a lot - to the point that it is annoying. But other than that is it bad for you if you drink too much liquid during the day?
It is possible to drink too much water, but its a lot of water. Basically, you saturate your body with water and the salts in your body get thrown off balance. I drink a lot of liquid and go to the bathroom a lot but I know I'm still well below the limit.
Normal, healthy (both physically and nutritionally) individuals have little to worry about accidentally consuming too much water. Nearly all deaths related to water intoxication in normal individuals have resulted either from water drinking contests, in which individuals attempt to consume more than 10 liters (2.2 imp gal; 2.6 U.S. gal) of water over the course of just a few minutes, or long bouts of intensive exercise during which electrolytes are not properly replenished, yet massive amounts of fluid are still consumed.
Yes, at extreme intakes, or even just high intakes for those with a medical condition that affects water removal.
Water Intoxication is a real thing - and can be fatal. It happens when you drink too much water too quickly, so your blood electrolyte levels drop.
It takes most normal, healthy people a lot of water to get to water intoxication, but kidney problems and other medical conditions can reduce the safe limit considerably.
In addition to the water intoxication or hyponatremia already mentioned, my naturopath also says that drinking too much water, especially the reverse-osmosis stuff, can leach important minerals from your body. I don't think with tap water or mineral water that is such a problem, since you'd be putting back in what you wash out, so to speak?
I remember a couple years ago there was a lady that died from water intoxication. She drank a lot of water in this competition to win an xbox or something like that and ended up dying. I don't remember the exact amount she drank but I remember it was insane the amount she drank... and she drank it really quickly too. They only had a certain amount of time to drink so much water.
When I dropped soda and started drinking water, I was running to the bathroom 2 or 3 times an hour. It's eased off though and I don't have to go so frequently, even though I'm drinking the same amount. I'm not constantly thirsty either like I was when I drank soda.
Don't know if this helps, but I had it explained to me once like this.
If you think of a plant that hasn't had enough water, the first few times you pour a bunch of water in the water seeps out the bottom of the plant almost
as quickly as you pour it in.
Once the plant gets used to the amount of water you are pouring in, much less seeps out the bottom.
When you first start drinking more water than your body is used to, you go to the washroom all the time. When your body gets used to that amount of water you don't have to go to the washroom as frequently anymore.
That's been how it worked for me. In the beginning of trying to up my water intake it felt like I was in the washroom every 10 minutes. Now it's a lot less once every hour or every few hours even.
girlpiggy I remember that- it was "don't wee for the wii" and they had to drink a TON of water and not pee. People were calling the station saying "stop you will kill these people it's dangerous." I believe it was the winner who died- trying to get a wii for her kids.
Anyways- as long as you can pee you are fine- that gets rid of the excess water anyways I drink probably an average of 2L of water a day which is just over 8 cups. When I started upping my water intake I found I was drinking more like 3-4 cups a day and when I upped it I felt like a pregnant woman going to the bathroom every 10 minutes! lol.
Anyways- as long as you can pee you are fine- that gets rid of the excess water anyways
Peeing has nothing to do with it. Eventually you will lose control of your bladder and pee youself. It is not peeing (voluntarily or not) that is the problem, it's the dilution of the blood that is the problem. Too low a concentration of sodium or other electrylytes in the blood will essentially cause a heart attack and you will die.
My mother was hospitalized for water intoxication (and she definitely was peeing when she wanted too). She also wasn't chugging large amounts of water in a short amount of time. Rather, she was simply following her WW leader's recommendation to "not count" coffee. She was only drinking a little more than a gallon a day, spread out through the day. Her kidneys had been fine (but were permanently damaged by the water intoxication). High blood pressure medications reduced her threshhold significantly (because many high blood pressure medications keep your body from retaining extra water and/or sodium).
It is the lack of sodium (sometimes other electrolytes, but usually it's sodium) that is the problem. As more people are avoiding sodium in their diet due to health consciousness, and especially as the dieting water myths are becoming more extreme, it's likely that the incidence of water intoxication will increase among individuals who otherwise wouldn't be at risk.
It's still not something the average person will generally have to worry about, but I believe understanding it is very important, for anyone drinking more than 3 quarts of water daily. The kidney specialist called in on my mom's case, says water intoxication was once only seen in marathon runners (even drinking "Gatorade" the electrolyte balance can be difficult to maintain, people trying to dilute their blood to fool a drug screen, and OCD mental patients whose compulsion was drinking water. He says he's seeing it more often, even in healthy people who aren't on meds, and usually when it's a relatively healthy person, with or without medications, it's due to some of the crazy diet water myths that are out there like having to drink 1/2 ounce per pound of water per body weight (dangerous for very obese folks, whose kidneys don't necessarily have a larger capacity than thinner folks), or coffee not counting (or worse, requiring compensation liquids).
It's a bit of a hot button topic for me, because of my mother's situation. When it happened, we got an evening call that we needed to get to IL ASAP, because Mom was in critical condition (they tell us if she had not gotten to the hospital when she did, she probably would have died of a heart attack - even getting her to the hospital she wasn't out of the woods for the risk of a heart attack for several days). We didn't know immediately what had happened, not until we got to IL (a 5 hour drive). Because my Mom and Dad thought it was "just" the flu, they nearly didn't go to the hospital. My Dad, a former EMT, just felt something was suspicious when in addition to severe flu symptoms (headache, vomiting....), Mom was confused and "just not herself." If he hadn't listened to his hunch, Mom would have died. It happens so fast, that a person is unlikely to recognize the symptoms for what they are until it's too late.
Urinating is the way the body gets rid of excess water- that healthy woman died because she wasn't allowed to urinate to remove any excess water, and I believe they weren't given food either. I am sure the OP will be eating as well as drinking during her day. I am sure though with time, if that woman had continued to drink and drink water without eating or anything else, eventually the same result would have happened. When you process water you do lose some electrolytes, and over time if you don't replenish them it's bad- but overall a healthy person that eats right, drinks a lot of water, and doesn't ignore the urges will be fine.
Your mother's situation sounds like it was a combination of her blood pressure medication (which already changes the salt concentration in your blood) and her diet- we don't know if the OP is taking blood medication, but for a healthy person and under normal circumstances, drinking a lot of water shouldn't hurt you. I'm glad your mother was okay.
It's not really the urinating that gets the water our of your blood. It's making the urine. Although eventually if the bladder is full enough the kidneys couldn't excrete any more urine, but a person couldn't hold that in if they tried. That would only be a factor with someone who had a physical obstruction to urinating or inability to relax the sphincter. However, there is a limit to how dilute the urine can be made. The kidneys can't excrete pure water.
I'm sorry to disagree, beerab, but she did not die because she was not allowed to urinate - eventually your body will release the bladder unwillingly. It's like holding your breath. It isn't possible to kill yourself by holding you'r breath - you can do it for a short period of time, but eventually your autonomous system takes over, you will pass out and start breathing. If you hold your bladder, eventually you will lose control of it and pee yourself (long before your life is "endangered" in any way).
The womans death could in no way be related to her bladder, unless her bladder would have burst (it didn't - besides, I've only ever heard of happening in impact injuiries with a full bladder, such as a car accident), getting rid of the water is not the primary problem in water intoxication - it's the hyponatremia (the sodium dilution) that is the problem. If you read news reports of the incident (and there are dozens online) she died of hyponatremia (the sodium depletion), not a burst bladder.
My mother's blood pressure medication and relative low sodium diet did lower her threshhold to the situation. Most folks eat far too much salt, for hyponatremia to ever be a problem - however as people become more health conscious and even mild blood pressure issues are treated early - and as these water myths get more extreme, more otherwise healthy people will be at risk.
The kidney specialist was very clear that he is seeing water intoxication in people he would never have thought to be at risk, and he attributed it directly to the dietary habit of drinking more than a gallon of water a day. That doesn't mean it's not still a rare occurence, but it can and does happen (and the bladder itself has very little to do with it).
The only "danger" in holding your urine (aside from the danger of wetting your pants), is straining the sphincter muscle (which isn't dangerous, it just will hurt). It was once thought that holiding your bladder excessively would increased the likelihood of a urinary tract infection (again that dreaded "common knowledged" with no basis in fact), but that has been refuted.
Too much water?
I drink probably an average of 2L of water a day which is just over 8 cups. When I started upping my water intake I found I was drinking more like 3-4 cups a day and when I upped it I felt like a pregnant woman going to the bathroom every 10 minutes! lol.
