What Happens If You Drink Too Much Water?

Time for reading: ~3 minutes Last Updated: October 17, 2022

So you finally listened to the calls to drink more water. They bought a 5-liter bottle, hung it in a prominent place in the room or office, and set a reminder on their phone about regular water consumption. And now think carefully: drinking water according to the regime really corresponds to the needs of your body or are you drinking because of force? Let's find out how to determine where the line between

Here you have finally heeded the calls to drink more water . They bought a 5-liter bottle, hung it in a prominent place in the room or office, and set a reminder on the phone about regular water consumption . And now think carefully: drinking water according to the regime really corresponds to the needs of your body or are you drinking because of force? Drinking more is not always an unambiguously correct attitude. The fact is that a healthy person needs 1.5-2 liters of water per day, and it can be risky to drink much more than that . Hyperhydration of the body is quite easy to achieve in the heat of intensive struggle against dehydration .

Let's learn how to determine where the line is between dehydration and hyperhydration .

Drinking a lot of water is not always useful

Hyperhydration is a diagnosis that primarily indicates a violation of water-salt metabolism. A complicated form of hyperhydration , which doctors call hyponatremia, water intoxication, or water poisoning, is rare and usually accompanies chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and congestive heart failure. Such a set is life-threatening and requires hospitalization, but fortunately, most people do not face such health problems.

You need to drink at least 2-3 liters of liquid in 15 minutes to find out what water poisoning is. It is difficult to achieve such a state by consuming only water , because the human body has natural buffer systems that control our intemperance.

Drinking too much water is just as bad as drinking too little, but excessive thirst-quenching can have other consequences. Drinking water in liters reduces the total level of salts and electrolytes, which are necessary, in particular, for the full-fledged work of the muscles. The balance of salts, electrolytes, and minerals such as potassium and magnesium is maintained by the kidneys and other regulatory mechanisms of the body. The result is the coordinated functioning of all systems, including muscle contraction and sending signals from neuron to neuron. Mild forms of hyperhydration can be expressed in muscle cramps - the lack of salts and electrolytes manifests itself more intensively when you foam, losing more substances necessary for normal muscle work.

Athletes use water enriched with electrolytes to compensate for their overspending, but ordinary people do not need to drink such drinks. Plain water is enough for an ordinary person even on a hot day. A sports drink or coconut water is needed when intense activity (for example, in the gym) lasts more than an hour or you sweat a lot (for example, in hot climates and desert conditions), which causes a salty crust on the skin. There's nothing wrong with consuming quality sports drinks, but why spend extra money if you don't really need them. However, drinks enriched with electrolytes will be appropriate for a hangover, as they cope well with alcohol intoxication and dehydration.

What Happens If You Drink Too Much Water?

Drinking a lot of water is not always useful

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