Today a friend of mine asked me how I was doing in the braces...and I reported "so far I am holding up pretty well...and I drink plenty of water to help the braces not be too uncomfortable."
Well then, he told me how a mother of 3 died earlier this year due to drinking too much water all at once, and that it is called water intoxication. I didn't know it was possible, or if I did...I forgot about it. (Which is quite likely.)
So I googled it, and sure enough, she did die from drinking too much water too quickly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Strange
I drink a lot of water myself, maybe about 2-3 liters a day. I think the amount I drink is probably a good target, and I don't see myself overdoing it like she did. I also read on the net somewhere that some people thought that if she had been drinking Gatorade, it would have increased her chances of survival. Gatorade has electrolytes...which I did know, but forgot.
Anyway, it was a good reminder that too much of a good thing, including water, can be dangerous.
Death by Water
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Clairey Fairey
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ok here's the deal with water. Too much of anything can kill you and yes even water. With that mother who had water intoxication, she could not use the restroom either. This then created a water imbalance and her body could not handle the overload of water since it had no place to go. Water was forced into areas of the body where it shouldn't. When you drink too much water, it will cause you to go to the restroom. Just make sure you actually go to the restroom LOL
A good indicator of your hydration level is the color of your urine. If your urine is clear then you are definitely hydrated. Just do not force yourself to drink tons of water. If your urine has a slight yellow tint then you are still properly hydrated. Again, no need to drink tons of water. Its when you have a dark yellow color to your urine that you should be drinking more water (liquids).
Everyone is different and you should learn how your body works to know whats right for you.
A good indicator of your hydration level is the color of your urine. If your urine is clear then you are definitely hydrated. Just do not force yourself to drink tons of water. If your urine has a slight yellow tint then you are still properly hydrated. Again, no need to drink tons of water. Its when you have a dark yellow color to your urine that you should be drinking more water (liquids).
Everyone is different and you should learn how your body works to know whats right for you.
Brace date: 5/2/2007
Debanding date: 1/14/2009
Ceramic Braces: 20 months
Currently in clear Essix retainers at night
My Blog: http://jjfan1.blogspot.com
Debanding date: 1/14/2009
Ceramic Braces: 20 months
Currently in clear Essix retainers at night
My Blog: http://jjfan1.blogspot.com
Ooo a chance to use my biological training! Hooray! (I knew this degree would come in handy lol)
Water intoxification and hyponatremia only occur if you drink WAAYY TOO MUCH water, or if you're an athelete that is SERIOUSLY pushing their envelope and drinking water only instead of something like gatorade.
When you get water intoxification/hyponatremia, your body is really craving electrolytes (mostly salts), so for the athelete example, if someone is running a marathon and drinking only water instead of sports drinks (which have electrolyes), the sodium balance that is mantained between the inside of your body's cells and their outside enviornment gets out of whack. Your body is constantly trying to mantain the same concentration of salts inside the cell and outside the cell, so when too much water accumulates outside of the cell (i.e. when you drink way too much water), the more sodium-rich water from inside the cell rushes out of the cell into its surroundings in an attempt to equalize teh sodium concentrations. This causes your cells to shrink up, and they can't work. If your cells don't work, they die. If too many of your cells die, you die!
Another thing that can happen when theres too much water in your body is that your cells will realize that the concentration of water molecules outside the cell is much higher than the concentration of water molecules inside the cell. So in this case, water from outside the cell rushes into the cell in an attempt to even out the water molecule concentration. When this happens, your cells will fill up with water until they literally burst. Obviously, if too many of your cells burst, you die!
So in conlcusion, water intoxification isn't something most of us need to worry about. Just don't drink until you feel sick, and if you run marathons, drink gatorade.
And that ends our biology lecture for the day, ladies and gentleman. Please have Chapters 5 and 6 read by next class, and don't forget theres a test 2 weeks from today!
Water intoxification and hyponatremia only occur if you drink WAAYY TOO MUCH water, or if you're an athelete that is SERIOUSLY pushing their envelope and drinking water only instead of something like gatorade.
When you get water intoxification/hyponatremia, your body is really craving electrolytes (mostly salts), so for the athelete example, if someone is running a marathon and drinking only water instead of sports drinks (which have electrolyes), the sodium balance that is mantained between the inside of your body's cells and their outside enviornment gets out of whack. Your body is constantly trying to mantain the same concentration of salts inside the cell and outside the cell, so when too much water accumulates outside of the cell (i.e. when you drink way too much water), the more sodium-rich water from inside the cell rushes out of the cell into its surroundings in an attempt to equalize teh sodium concentrations. This causes your cells to shrink up, and they can't work. If your cells don't work, they die. If too many of your cells die, you die!
Another thing that can happen when theres too much water in your body is that your cells will realize that the concentration of water molecules outside the cell is much higher than the concentration of water molecules inside the cell. So in this case, water from outside the cell rushes into the cell in an attempt to even out the water molecule concentration. When this happens, your cells will fill up with water until they literally burst. Obviously, if too many of your cells burst, you die!
So in conlcusion, water intoxification isn't something most of us need to worry about. Just don't drink until you feel sick, and if you run marathons, drink gatorade.
And that ends our biology lecture for the day, ladies and gentleman. Please have Chapters 5 and 6 read by next class, and don't forget theres a test 2 weeks from today!
