I purposefully deleted my threads because certain people had became too argumentative. That wasn't the initial intention of this thread. It was to inform people of a potential health risk.

Lily, I didn't see people being arguementative - they were just expressing that they'd not heard of it and voicing their opinions. Your first-person experience is valuable here and I wish you'd reconsider removing the post that told what happened to you.

If anyone has any doubt about this they should ask their physician.

Originally Posted by lilybelle:
I purposefully deleted my threads because certain people had became too argumentative. That wasn't the initial intention of this thread. It was to inform people of a potential health risk.

I'm sorry Lily, I wasn't trying to be argumentative (I'm pretty sure I'm one of the people you're referring to) and certainly did not want you to delete what you had said! In fact, I deliberately tried to use language that was not inflammatory and apologize if you took it that way.

And then, yes, I got on my soapbox. Some of these are issues that I teach about every day as a psychology professor and sometimes the professor part leaks out here. I guess I do see this as a community concerned about education to some extent, and sometimes I see an opportunity to talk about things I do know something about, though I actually do try to keep this part of me in check.

However, all that being said, I guess I’m wondering (trying not to be inflammatory) if we’ve demonstrated that the health risk we’re talking about is death.

The initial poster (poor butterfly dreams) had a vivid story about a man who died of a heart attack, and made a specific causal statement (the heart attack was caused by drinking ice cold water). I tried to find that story to get more specific information, but couldn’t find it online.

Your own vivid experience (if I recall) was about fainting after drinking really cold water, an effect that is corroborated by the literature that Sarah found. And you said that your doctor thought it was a vagal response. But I don't recall that post directly linking the drinking of ice cold water to death. (And I might be wrong about that).

And now the thread has 2 very vivid anecdotes that people use to come to the conclusion that their lives may be in danger if they drink ice cold water. But in fact, the health risk of which people were afraid of (dying) didn’t seem to be supported by either post.

So, maybe that is argumentative, but I thought of it more as raising an issue to debate, and trying to use language that didn’t inflame (and perhaps I was not successful). I saw a claim I was unsure about and rather than let it go, I raised questions about it.

I doubt that people are going to start fearing water as a result of this thread. If they are, that's just, um, SILLY ;)

We are mostly made up of water. We need lots of it to survive. It's good stuff. Drink up! :)

But drinking it when it is very cold:
1) it's not absorbed as quickly by the body
2) it may cause shock to the body and varying degrees of that shock

If you are a huge fan of ice cold water, just realize that it could contain a risk of bad effects. That's all.

I suppose if I spent several more days digging through the PubMed literature and scanning more of the Google results, I could get more data, but why? It's not a 100% cause and effect. Beyond poison/toxic gases, there are few things we can ingest that will kill us quickly.

Numerically what is the risk with ice water? Probably not high or yeah, we'd have seen it on fitness sites, read about it in magazines, etc.

But it's an easily avoidable risk, so what the hey?

Originally Posted by lilybelle:
If anyone has any doubt about this they should ask their physician.

I agree.

But I am still interested in finding out if this happens, how often and to whom (who would be at risk). And it may be unlikely that my physician will have that specific information.

Originally Posted by wyllenn:
... I am still interested in finding out if this happens, how often and to whom (who would be at risk). And it may be unlikely that my physician will have that specific information.

There's the net... there's medical libraries... and then there's the docs. Docs are probably the best first line of inquiry.

Like others have said, medicine is tricky. Sometimes it's hard to say X absolutely caused Y.

But if MDs say:
"Ingestion of cold liquids should be considered a potential trigger for fatal cardiac arrhythmias in patients with underlying heart disease" then I'll take that and go, hmm, do *I* have underlying heart disease?

Who knows? I could. I've had cholesterol over 300 before. I'm not "in shape". Should I start chugging ice water and see what happens? Nah, think I'll pass.

I'm sure there are more cases out there for those who want to dig for them. But I think that the warning was just a shout-out to be careful and mindful, not a Chicken Little freak-out... and even though it was posted without a lot of back-up context, it still is valid as a general piece of info.

Originally Posted by Gardenwife:
There are some good ones!

LOL ===cracking up=== those are great!

Lily, I certainly was not trying to be argumentative either; to me online discussion is to share various opinions. If everyone just agrees with everyone else, it quickly gets pretty boring. Anyway, sorry if it came across that way; that was not my intention. And if there is more factual information I too would really like to see it, with specifics. I have not been able to find any, though admittedly have not spent massive amounts of time searching.

LOL. No ya'll didn't scare me off, Wyllen.

Originally Posted by butterfly_dreams:
LOL. No ya'll didn't scare me off, Wyllen.

Somehow I get the feeling you don't scare too easily. :)

Didn't mean to cause a debate here. lol. I just heard that some guy drank ice water after working outdoors all day and he had a heart attack from drinking it. That's all know. I have heard a story like this before so after the second time of hearing about ice water I thought I'd warn and inform some of ya'll. :)

lol. yeah I try to be all that I can be. lol.

wow, thanx for the warning, that is sooo freaky...i never knew that, i love drinking icey cold water too...im gonna keep that in mind for now on.

Butterfly, personally I considered the "debate" to be all in good spirits and a good discussion! I think it is great that you brought it up... and it sent me off googling for more info. :)

butterfly dreams -- I'm so glad to hear no one scared you off! :)

I always just ask a lot of questions, all the time. And this time I just did it publicly. More than once. Usually I just ask my living room, and it isn't very imformative... :D