What are the symptoms of water intoxication? What should I do if I notice symptoms? How much is too much? What causes water intoxication? Is it preventable? The bottom line. Read this next. What to Know About Dehydration. Medically reviewed by Angelica Balingit, MD. Aldosterone Test.
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This can affect the brain stem and cause central nervous system dysfunction. In severe cases, water intoxication can cause seizures, brain damage, a coma , and even death.
Bottom line : Drinking too much water can increase the pressure inside the skull. This can cause various symptoms and, in severe cases, become fatal.
Water intoxication is rare, and it is very difficult to consume too much water by accident. However, it can happen — there have been numerous medical reports of death due to excessive water intake.
Water intoxication most commonly affects people participating in sporting events or endurance training, or people who have various mental health conditions. Water intoxication is particularly common among endurance athletes. It can happen if a person drinks a lot of water without correctly accounting for electrolyte losses.
Instances of water intoxication at these events have resulted in death. One case involved a runner who had collapsed after a marathon. The runner then developed water on the brain, known as hydrocephalus , and a hernia in his brain stem, which caused his death. One medical report described 17 soldiers who developed hyponatremia after drinking too much water during training. According to another report , three soldiers died due to hyponatremia and cerebral edema.
These deaths were associated with drinking more than 5 liters of water in just a few hours. The symptoms of hyponatremia can be misinterpreted as those of dehydration. According to one report , a soldier who received an incorrect diagnosis of dehydration and heat stroke died from water intoxication as a result of rehydration efforts.
Compulsive water drinking, also called psychogenic polydipsia , can be a symptom of various mental health conditions. It is most common among people with schizophrenia , but it can also arise in people with affective disorders, psychosis, and personality disorders. Bottom line : Water intoxication can be life threatening, and it is most common among soldiers in training, endurance athletes, and people with schizophrenia. It is difficult to consume too much water by accident.
However, it can happen, and there have been numerous reports of death due to excess water intake. People at risk of death from water intoxication tend to be participating in endurance sporting events or military training.
Having said all this, it begs the question: How much water should one be drinking in a day? McStay said a good way to tell if you need to drink more water is to take a look at your urine. For those who are more active, sometimes it helps to have sports drinks, which contain more electrolytes. But if you really want a hard number to start with, experts at the Mayo Clinic say a goal of eight glasses a day is reasonable for a sedentary person.
She graduated from Texas State University with a degree in electronic media. A river flood warning in effect for Lake and Volusia Counties. Too much of a good thing? But, though less common, overhydrating can also lead to health problems.
Neither one of those is conducive to performance. One consequence of drinking too much water, which is sometimes called water intoxication, is hyponatremia. Excessive water consumption dilutes electrolytes in the blood, such as sodium, says Mitchell Rosner, MD , a nephrologist with the department of medicine at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. When the sodium level drops too quickly, fluids move out of the bloodstream and into tissue cells, which causes these cells to expand.
In extreme cases, Dr. Hyponatremia is the most common electrolyte disorder, according to research published in August in the American Journal of Medicine. The condition has also occurred during contests in which people set out to drink extremely large amounts of fluids.
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