Every cell in the trunk needs water to function correctly. However, drinking too much tin can lead to h2o intoxication and serious health consequences.

It is difficult to drinkable too much water by accident, merely it can happen, usually as a event of overhydrating during sporting events or intense training.

The symptoms of h2o intoxication are general — they can include confusion, disorientation, nausea, and vomiting.

In rare cases, h2o intoxication tin cause swelling in the brain and get fatal.

This commodity describes the symptoms, causes, and effects of water intoxication. It also looks into how much h2o a person should drink each day.

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A person may experience water intoxication if they drinkable as well much water.

Also known as water poisoning, h2o intoxication is a disruption of brain function caused past drinking besides much water.

Doing so increases the amount of water in the claret. This tin dilute the electrolytes, especially sodium, in the blood.

If sodium levels fall below 135 millimoles per liter (mmol/l), doctors refer to the consequence as hyponatremia.

Sodium helps maintain the rest of fluids inside and exterior of cells. When sodium levels drop due to excessive water consumption, fluids travel from the outside to the within of cells, causing them to swell.

When this happens to brain cells, it can exist dangerous and even life threatening.

Lesser line: Water intoxication results from drinking too much h2o. The excess water dilutes sodium in the claret and causes fluids to move inside cells, causing them to swell.

When a person consumes an excessive amount of water and cells in their brain showtime to swell, the pressure inside their skull increases. This causes the beginning symptoms of water intoxication, which include:

  • headaches
  • nausea
  • vomiting

Severe cases of water intoxication tin produce more serious symptoms, such equally:

  • drowsiness
  • muscle weakness or cramping
  • increased blood pressure
  • double vision
  • confusion
  • inability to identify sensory information
  • difficulty animate

A buildup of fluid in the brain is called cognitive edema. This can touch the brain stem and cause central nervous arrangement dysfunction.

In severe cases, h2o intoxication can crusade seizures, brain harm, a coma, and even death.

Bottom line: Drinking too much water can increase the pressure inside the skull. This tin crusade various symptoms and, in severe cases, become fatal.

H2o intoxication is rare, and information technology is very hard to consume as well much water by accident. However, it can happen — there have been numerous medical reports of expiry due to excessive water intake.

H2o intoxication nearly commonly affects people participating in sporting events or endurance training, or people who accept various mental wellness conditions.

Sporting events

H2o intoxication is particularly mutual among endurance athletes. It can happen if a person drinks a lot of water without correctly accounting for electrolyte losses.

For this reason, hyponatremia often occurs during major sporting events.

As the authors of one study report, out of 488 participants in the 2002 Boston Marathon, 13% had hyponatremia symptoms, and 0.06% had critical hyponatremia, with sodium levels of less than 120 mmol/fifty.

Instances of water intoxication at these events have resulted in death. One case involved a runner who had collapsed afterwards a marathon.

Because he was improperly rehydrated, his sodium levels fell below 130 mmol/l. The runner then developed h2o on the brain, known every bit hydrocephalus, and a hernia in his brain stalk, which caused his expiry.

Military training

One medical report described 17 soldiers who developed hyponatremia after drinking likewise much water during training. Their blood sodium levels were 115–130 mmol/fifty, while the normal range is 135–145 mmol/l.

According to another written report, three soldiers died due to hyponatremia and cerebral edema. These deaths were associated with drinking more 5 liters of h2o in only a few hours.

The symptoms of hyponatremia can be misinterpreted as those of aridity. According to one report, a soldier who received an wrong diagnosis of dehydration and heat stroke died from water intoxication equally a result of rehydration efforts.

Mental health conditions

Compulsive h2o drinking, also called psychogenic polydipsia, can be a symptom of diverse mental wellness atmospheric condition.

It is most common among people with schizophrenia, merely it can besides arise in people with affective disorders, psychosis, and personality disorders.

Bottom line: Water intoxication can be life threatening, and it is most mutual among soldiers in training, endurance athletes, and people with schizophrenia.

It is difficult to consume too much h2o by accident. However, it can happen, and there have been numerous reports of death due to excess h2o intake.

People at risk of expiry from water intoxication tend to be participating in endurance sporting events or military preparation. A person who is doing neither is unlikely to die from drinking too much water.

Overhydration and water intoxication happen when a person drinks more than water than their kidneys can get rid of via urine.

The amount of h2o is non the simply factor — time also plays a function.

Co-ordinate to figures quoted in a 2013 study, the kidneys tin can eliminate virtually 20–28 liters of water a day, but they tin remove no more than than 0.8 to 1.0 liters every hr.

To avert hyponatremia, it is of import not to outpace the kidneys past drinking more water than they can eliminate.

The authors of the report report that hyponatremia symptoms can develop if a person drinks iii–4 liters of water in a short menses, though they exercise not requite a specific time estimate.

According to one case report, soldiers adult symptoms after consuming at least 2 quarts (i.nine liters) of water per hr.

Some other report describes the development of hyponatremia after drinking more than than 5 liters in a few hours.

Water intoxication and prolonged hyponatremia also occurred in an otherwise healthy 22-year-old prisoner who drank six liters of water in 3 hours.

Finally, according to one study, a nine-year-former daughter developed water intoxication after consuming iii.vi liters of h2o in 1–2 hours.

Bottom line: The kidneys can remove xx–28 liters of water per twenty-four hour period, only they cannot excrete more than 0.8 to i.0 liters per hour. Drinking more than this can be harmful.

According to the Centers for Disease Command and Prevention (CDC), there are no official guidelines almost how much water a person needs to drinkable each day.

The right corporeality differs, depending on factors such as trunk weight, level of physical activity, the climate, and whether they are breastfeeding.

In 2004, The National Academy of Medicine recommended that women aged 19–thirty consume effectually ii.7 liters per solar day and men of the same age around iii.7 liters per day.

Some people still follow the 8×viii dominion, which recommends drinking 8 8-ounce glasses of water per day. Still, this was not based on research.

Relying on thirst may not work for everyone. Athletes, older adults, and meaning women, for example, may need to drink more h2o each day.

To guess the correct amount, it can assistance to consider calories. If a person needs 2,000 calories per twenty-four hours, they should also consume 2,000 milliliters of water per day.

Read more than about daily water intake recommendations here.

Drinking also much water tin can atomic number 82 to water intoxication. This is rare and tends to develop amid endurance athletes and soldiers.

There are no official guidelines about how much water to drink. To avoid h2o intoxication, some sources recommend drinking no more than 0.8 to 1.0 liters of h2o per hr.