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Back in 2007, a 28-year-old suburban Sacramento woman died of apparent “water intoxication” after participating in a water drinking contest — “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” — sponsored by local radio station 107.9 KDND. The rules were quite simple and completely idiotic - Compete to see how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom and the winner receives a shiny new Nintendo Wii. So I thought it would be apt to explain to you why drinking too much water can be hazardous to your health and in some cases fatal.It is estimated that the woman who died drank approximately 2 gallons of water during the contest. The drinking water competition, and in fact any drinking competition is the high of foolishness and people need to be more aware of the consequences as in this tragic case.There are two significant ways that over-drinking of water can negatively affect your body:1) Ingesting too much water can increase your blood volume which creates more stress on your heart and blood vessels. As your circulatory system becomes overly diluted with water, the concentration of electrolytes in your blood will drop relative to the concentration of electrolytes in your cells. To maintain a healthy balance of electrolytes between blood and cells, water may seep into your cells from your blood, causing them to swell. There are a wide variety of symptoms you could experience depending on how much water you have consumed and how quickly ranging from a mild headache to difficulty breathing.2) Ingesting too much water means that your kidneys overly work filter excess water out of your circulatory system. Your kidneys consist of in part by a series of specialised capillary beds called glomeruli. By drowning your kidneys in too much water you will damage the glomeruli. By forcing your body to accept an overly large amount of water within a short period of time like 1-1.5 hours, your kidneys will struggle to pass sufficient water from your system to keep the overall amount at a safe level.As occurred in the tragic water-drinking contest, it's quite possible to die if you drink enough water in a short period of time.How much water should we really drink then?The answer is, it's depends on several factors such as your lifestyle, height, weight, exercise habits, how hot or cold your environment is and more. If your diet consists of a low level of natural produce (fruit and vegetables) it is likely that you will need to drink more fluids than someone who has a high percentage of these foods in their diet, as they are rich in fluids.Equally if you sweat a lot, which is your body's natural cooling mechanism, you of course need to rehydrate more often than someone who does not sweat.Do not listen to nonsense advice of you have to drink x number of glasses per day. Listen to your body and drink as much as you need. Sometimes the effects of dehydration and kick in before our thirst receptors give us the clue we need that we are thirsty.How do I know if I'm suffering from the effects of dehydration?As we are having some seriously lovely warm weather right now, I think it's about time to reinforce the importance of keeping hydrated. Normally, a feeling of thirst is the brain's way of warning you that you're dehydrated, because you're not drinking the amount of fluid that your body needs. You can soon quench your thirst and restore the fluid balance in your body after having a drink. Hot weather triggers your hypothalamus and skin. You be become flushed (blood rushes to the surfaces of your skin) this helps the body to prevent overheating. Also, the body perspires; heat is lost through water, because it has a high heat capacity. Water is being lost in order to prevent overheating, but water is an important functional component of the body. The hypothalamus then triggers the cognitive part of your mind to be "thirsty".However, there are several other symptoms which could arise before you actually feel any thirst. These include:- Yawning or feeling tired and sleepy during the day
- Headaches
- Difficulty concentrating
- Lack of energy
- Sore eyes
