recently, i lived in Texas, and i drank a hella lot of water. up til august, i was drinking something along the lines of 320 ounces of water per day (at least!). it was hot, i wanted to stay hydrated, you get the picture.
anyway, i’ve been meaning to ask for a while: if i drink a lot of water, does my internal water equilibrium change?
i guess i’m thinking about water consumption like drug consumption (flawed, deeply- i know). your body eventually gets used to the presence of the drug, and then needs the drug to function correctly.
so did i build up water tolerance? did my body fidgit with my salt/water balance, or learn to make more plasma more quickly, or what? or did i simply pee more often?
This is a hot topic lately. Yes, I understand that you can drink too much water where it messes with your electrolite balance
From what I understand, the old adage used to be that if you wait until you’re thirsty to drink, it’s too late.
NOW, they’re saying - wait until your thirsty to prevent drinking too much water.
I forget how much you have to drink, but by increasing volume you can decrease the concentration of a number of electrolytes*. First off, if you’re otherwise healthy, it’s pretty difficult to do this, and I’ve never actually heard it recommended not to drink too, much (not that it hasn’t been). My experience is limited, but the only cases I’ve seen in otherwise healthy people were due to psychogenic polydipsia- they had a mental illness, one of the effects of which was to make them continually have a craving to drink. You sometimes have to limit use of the bathroom to keep them from drinking from the toilet. So unless you’re really continually pushing it (I’ll look up the amount when I get a chance) you’re pretty safe.
*The main electrolyte that you have to worry about is sodium. From “Cecil Textbook of Medicine, 21st ed”
The primary symptoms of hyponatremia [low sodium] are related to the CNS, including lethargy, apathy, confusion, disorientation, agitation, depression, and psychosis. Focal neurologic deficits, ataxia, and seizures have been reported. Other nonspecific signs and symptoms include muscle cramps, anorexia, nausea, and weakness.
Tell that to the numerous marathoners, ultramarathoners, and triathletes who have felled victim to hyponatremia. A runner died in the Chgo Marathon last year due to hyponatremia.
It’s still good advice to begin drinking water before you are thirsty. The caveat is that if you are going to engage in endurance events in the heat, take in some sodium too, such as is found in sports drinks. Do not take salt tablets, as they contain too much sodium and can lead to ill side effects.
If you are drinking a lot of water and not exercising and feel the need to do so, you should be checked for possible diabetes, either insipidous or mellitous.
Yes, there’s a condition called hyponatremia, which is caused by drinking too much water without replacing salts, diluting your electrolyte concentrations. However, it’s pretty rare unless you’re doing lots of very long, hard exercise (and by that I mean running a marathon or something), and not replacing the salts you sweat out. It’s not uncommon in endurance sports, something like a a third of all Ironman-distance triathlon finishers are hyponatremic, for example.
As far as tolerance, you probably just ended up peeing more. Just drink when you’re thirsty and you should be fine. A good rule of thumb is that you should drink enough that you’re peeing clear (or nearly so) once a day. Any more often means you’re drinking too much.
Your kidneys are very capable organs. If healthy, they can dispose of 10-12 liters of very dilute urine/day to maintain internal osmotic and electrolyte balance. The amount you quote 320 oz (approx 9 liters) is pushing it, but if your kidneys are normal, you shouldn’t suffer any ill effects.
As PC points out, “intentional” overconsumption (>12L/d), is termed psychogenic polydipsia. This can cause hyponatremia, which is something to avoid. Hyponatremia only develops when you’ve exceeded the kidney’s capacity to excrete dilute urine.
BTW, jb_, are you forcing yourself to drink this much or do you feel so thirsty that you need to drink this much? If it’s the latter, I suggest you visit your MD for investigation of medical causes of extreme thirst (diabetes being the most common cause).
Well I guess I’d have to put marathons, ultramarathons, and even triathalons in the “pretty difficult” category, but then I don’t the the regular exercise I ought to.
Also, I was assuming you were drinking a lot because you wanted to be careful about getting enough, but I definitely second QtM and Choosy about getting it checked if you feel thirsty enough to make you drink more than you used to.
yeah, i already knew about the too-much-water equals death thing (isn’t that #5 in the SD Chatechism?), but hell- if the shoe fits, post it.
i’m wondering more like- say i need eight glasses of water, and i have perfect jb hydration. if i got in the habit of ten glasses, would my body be a bit dehydrated if i drank only eight one day?
and if i’m drinking at least five big-ass 64 oz cups of water a day, could i suffer some dehydration symptoms if i only drank eight on a really hot day (point- also assuming eight on a hot day used to be ideal for me, before i started chugging agua like mad)?
jb
p.s.- oh, and it’s not like i had a weird extreme unexpected thirst or anything. frankly, i don’t know why i was drinking so much. but boy did i feel great! piss as pure as the driven snow…
jb, your body’s pretty adaptable as far as fluids go, as long as your kidneys are normal, and you’re not overtaxing the hell out of them. Cutting back from drinking high volumes of water should have no detrimental effects. In my professional opinion.
No, your body takes things like water/sodium balance much too seriously to allow you to muck up the works with only a 20% change in intake
**
ONLY eight?!? That’s approx 15 liters of water. Normal fluid consumption is 1.5-2 L/day. Increasing to 3-4 L/D in warm weather is probably helpful but why are you drinking this much? Do you drink more than this?
**
I don’t know why either. Maybe it’s a byproduct of your dry sense of humor. If I were your doc, though, I’d surely be more than curious. If you report intakes accurately, you take in a markedly abnormal quantity of fluid.
I think everyone is forgetting that fluid from any source counts, and that includes fruits and vegetables. Many fruits are over half water. So, when one says he drinks 8 glasses a day, he is not counting all the other water he is ingesting.
They may not count as much as real water, it depends on sodium content. If you eat salted, canned peas you may be getting the equivalent of normal saline in terms of fluid ingestion. This will not contribute to water excess.
There was a story in the past week or two about parents who apparently tried to “discipline” a child by forcing him/her to drink large amounts of water. The kid died.
in my “eight glasses” vs “ten glasses”, I was speaking about normal size glasses of water. like eight eight ounce servings versus ten eight ounce servings.
but when i referred to a sixty-four ounce cup, i was definitely talking about a 64 ounce cup. I really gotta work on my antecedants.
also, i only just realized that this thread could be taken as a “I’ve been drinking a lot of water, and i wonder if it’s safe to cut down” thing. don’t worry; nothing of the sort. I am back down to ‘normal’ water consumption now, but i sort of subtly segued to the consumption level i am at now.
and i’ve wondered for a while what the effects would be if I hadn’t, if i had simply gone cold turkey.
if my body were used to 25% higher levels (say after a few months), would going back to regular baseline levels of consumption be equivalent to both being at my baseline, and dropping my consumption by 80%?
