Your lungs need something close to 100% relative humidity in the air in order to work properly; your nostrils, trachea, bronchi and bronchioles generally take care of this. This is why your exhaled air is so moist.
If you’re inhaling very humid air, this reduces the moisture requirement from your lungs; that is, it will reduce the rate at which your body loses moisture, but it will not add moisture to your body.
If you live in an extremely dry climate (e.g. Boulder, Colorado in the wintertime), you can lose a lot of moisture just through respiration.
As for the OP’s tale:
This is a pretty easy one to check:
Beginning in a healthy state of hydration, take a 20-minute shower.
keep a written record of your total urine output volume over the subsequent two hours.
the next day, beginning in a healthy state of hydration, drink 6-8 glasses of water over a 20-minute period.
keep a written record of your total urine output volume over the susequent two hours.
Compare the two written records.
My prediction is a huge discrepancy between the two written records.
I highly doubt any “standard” bathroom scale is that accurate. I’ve heard of ones that will repeat certain measurements taken with a certain period of time though.
And of course what you are saying is unknown to science…
Makes me wish we had a seriously accurate scale - mrAru has alopecia and absolutely no hair anywhere to hold water. [His normal comment is that he really misses his nose hairs:p]
After 8 years, the zombie’s probably pretty dried out. That might make it really absorbent, come to think of it. You’d think that a soggy zombie would weigh a lot more than a dried out zombie.
Do you mean water softeners? That’s actually pretty common but not because of absorption of water.
I guess if you use well water for your shower, you might want to filter out lead or sulfur or other stuff (maybe chlorine, if you’re so inclined), so it’s possible to have a shower filter. But again, that’s nothing to do with absorption of water and with what else is in the water.
This is in no means intended to prevent knocking of gullible people who are buying water purifiers for the intent of absorbing water through their skins, but I will make two (three) notes:
some people (myself included) brush their teeth and drink from the shower.
most soaps and shampoos are designed to work with a certain level of water “hardness” or “softness” and the purifiers help with that, making the sudsing action work better (please note the cleansing action is not actually much changed by the sudsing, but it makes most people happy to have big foamy suds, so there it is.)
(I couldn’t resist (Hi, Opal!) - 3) placebo affect - they think their water is PURE for their shower, they feel healthier because of it, they ARE healthier.)
Also… recent research shows that pruny skin is not water absorption. After all, does all your skin everywhere become pruny?
The pruning happens internally, not externally. It’s a bodily response to being in water. The leading theory is that it increases grip on slippery surfaces.
Was just going to add that, moriah. I didn’t know that back when this thread made it’s first rounds. The latest thinking is that raisin fingers are because of nerve response, nothing to do with dehydration or overhydration.
Also, you have to pee after swimming because, well, you have to pee every couple of hours anyhow. But also because the weight of the water encourages fluid to move into the lymph vessels and ultimately to the bladder and out as urine. Swimming pools, and even bathtubs, are a common recommendation for reducing edema in the feet and ankles. It’s like temporary compression stockings, without the fashion crime.