Water

Apropos of yesterday's water discussion, here's some absolutely useless advice about how to tell if you're drinking too much or too little water:

Initial symptoms of over-hydration include dizziness, nausea, apathy and confusion. However these symptoms are also associated with dehydration - so it's important to be aware of how much you are drinking.

At any rate, I'll say that it never occurred to me that over-consumption of water might be a problem, but apparently it can. Maybe I'll have to make this New Year's Resolution 2008. This, though, seems like the sort of resolution that will prompt people to look at me funny.

4/19/07 9:41AM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

If you're sweating, and you drink tons of water without replacing the electrolytes, you can flush all the electrolytes out of your system. I saw it happen to a guy in the military once and it messed him up - worse than a heatstroke.

Posted by: T on April 19, 2007 09:56 AM

A young woman running the Boston Marathon died of it a couple years ago. As T indicates, the problem arises when your sodium levels drop too far. The Wikipedia page on hyponatremia has more information.

Posted by: alkali on April 19, 2007 10:06 AM

Hmmm, I suffer from apathy and confusion quite a lot but not so much dizziness or nausea. Should I drink a bit more or a bit less?

Posted by: Matt (not the famous one) on April 19, 2007 10:28 AM

Oy. Embarassing but true story. When I was in middle school and me and my friends had a hard time gtting liquor, we'd sometimes play drinking games with, except we'd use water. The point of the game was to be able to drink the most, and be the last person to have to pee.

One night, a friend of mine drank so much water that she passed out. We had to call an ambulance, and obviously the paramedics didn't believe our story that all she was "on" was water. She spent the night in the hospital, and we stopped playing that game.

Posted by: Scott E. on April 19, 2007 11:12 AM

That's a hilarious story. Glad everything turned out alright.

I don't think the advice is useless, Matt. Deciding whether you drank a ton or a really small amount of water should be pretty easy. It's doubtful that someone who's been gulping water nonstop and feels dizzy afterward would be confused by the advice.

Posted by: mk on April 19, 2007 11:25 AM

Recently, a young mother died of water intoxication after participating in a contest called "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" on a California radio station:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6261509.stm

Posted by: C on April 19, 2007 11:28 AM

I've heard of at least one case of a girl at a club who had a bad trip on ex. She was getting dehydrated, so her friends gave her a bunch of water, which caused her sodium levels to drop too low and killing her. Somehow people blamed this on the ex. When are we going to outlaw water? Then again, just about every year this is at least one town that tries to outlow dihydrogen monoxide.

Posted by: Reality Man on April 19, 2007 11:44 AM

This happened to me several years ago. I was coming off a case of the flu, had not eaten much, and I had been dehydrated-feeling. I drank a lot of water, started feeling worse, took some aspirin, drank some more water (the thirst was incredible), and at some point I am sure I stopped thinking rationally, or I would have stopped drinking the fucking water. My wife got home from work, I told her I had a bad headache, etc. Within an hour or two she was rushing me to the hospital. I went into a seizure, lost consciousness, and was put in ICU. The funny (not funny at all) thing was that they could not figure out what it was. The doctors went from bleeding on the brain, to some form of encephalitis, to God knows what, until someone put two and two together and noticed I had pissed like 4 liters of water in the first 12 hours I was at the hospital. Very scary shit, and not something I had ever heard of before then. Basically what happens is the potassium and sodium levels in your blood stream get diluted, and once the lower-concentration blood crosses the blood-brain barrier, your brain shuts down.

Posted by: Jeff in Texas on April 19, 2007 12:02 PM

I call for a global ban on all medical journals that list apathy as symptom of any condition. I mean, seriously, apathy? "Hmmm, I have a general kind of indifference to the world today, so maybe I'm low on electrolytes."

Sheesh.

Posted by: sangfroid826 on April 19, 2007 12:10 PM

There's been some studies of marathon runners that have found that symptomatic low sodium is more common than symptomatic dehydration. Seems there's been such a push to hydrate that people actually take in more plain water than their body needs, and they dilute their sodium. Suggestions have included weighing oneself at rest stops during marathons, and only drinking if your weight is going down.

Posted by: Mick on April 19, 2007 01:08 PM

Jeff in Texas:
That's really scary, and I'm glad you turned out alright, but I had to laugh at "at some point I am sure I stopped thinking rationally, or I would have stopped drinking the fucking water."

Posted by: rbl on April 19, 2007 01:11 PM

I have a twenty-page draft due tomorrow, discussion questions that are weeks overdue to complete, a speech to perfect, two books for one paper I have to read, half a book for another class I have to read, and finals I have to start studying for, along with a full time job. I'm completely miserable about all of this, yet that made me laugh pretty hard. So good for you, Matt.

Posted by: Brian on April 19, 2007 01:49 PM

I mean, seriously, apathy?

What's wrong with you? Don't you care about apathy?

Posted by: rea on April 19, 2007 02:41 PM

Really which is the more important problem facing America? Ignorance? or Apathy?

I don't know and I don't care.

(Okay its old)

Posted by: Bruce Webb on April 19, 2007 02:46 PM

Simple: Use urine color as your guide. Dark yellow = dehydrated. Constantly clear = probably over hydrated. Pale yellow = good.

Posted by: Corey on April 19, 2007 03:06 PM

Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?

Posted by: Consumatopia on April 19, 2007 04:57 PM

Random thoughts:
1. I did an OvernightBackpack to SanJacintoPeak near PalmSprings on 5L of water. I drank near a gallon driving in and at the TramStation.

2. (One of) my tales of near-dehydration at the link. The hike in question is 3 miles/2600' of gain and involves some second and third ClassRock climbing. I probably had at least 3L and maybe 4L, but it still wasn't enough.

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