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Water poisoning?!
My brother told me about water poisoning. I drink a LOT of water a day, a lot that it's probably unhealthy, and now I'm kind of worried. I'm pretty sure I drink more than 8 cups a day.
I'm going to start measuring 8 cups a day of water since that's how much I should have a day, but do I have water poisoning? How do I know if I have it? I googled it and read that it IS indeed true; It wasn't him trying to scare me.
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Completely agree with razhie and co. Drink plenty spread over the course of the day. Ttaying well hydrated is a really good thing. Keeps your body and brain functioning at its best. You're fine. Our bodies lose fluids by sweating, going for a pee and manage the whole set up on their own. If you are constantly peeing you might drink a little less. If you feel a strong thirst that's the first sign of your body saying 'I need more fluids'. And you know when you've had enough. And water's the best stuff really. I mean, eight cups of highly flavoured, sugar-laden soft drinks a day and you'll wind up as fat as a pig, with lousy teeth before long! Eight coffees and you'll probably find it hard to sleep because of the all caffeine. Water poisoning issues? We're talking WAY too much in a very short time. We know eight cups over a day is reckoned a good thing, just about matching what we will use and lose in the same period. Wouldn't wory about measuring everything exactly. Just a rough estimate. I mean even if your estimate was a whole 50% out you'll have had 12...which won't do you a blind bit of harm, ever!
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You have nothing to worry about.
The people who get water poisoning drink litres of it - very quickly. The last women who died this way drank over 6 litres in an hour as part of a water-drinking contest. That's about the equivalent of 50 glasses of water. The human body just can't process water that quickly.
Are you drinking 50 glasses of water in an hour? No.
You are drinking the normal, healthy amount of water a person should drink.
Don't get yourself stressed out. You are fine.
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It is possible to drink too much water but it isn't easy. The problem is not so much with the water but the imbalance it causes between fluids and electrolytes in your body. This then can cause other problems which could occasionally lead to death. However, and I stress this, it is VERY rare for this to happen, it certainly wouldn't by drinking that much, in fact it's good to keep hydrated. A simple test you can do to see if you're dehydrated is to pinch the skin on the back of your hand. If it goes back down straight away you're sufficiently hydrated. If it stays raised up for any length of time you need to drink some fluids.
So basically, I rather think your brother was trying to wind you up. You would have to drink an enormous quantity of water to harm yourself and you'd probably start feeling bloated before you got that far. Having said that, there are some illegal drugs, Ecstasy for example, which have been known to cause excessive thirst making the person drink too much, leading to severe health problems.
You carry on drinking the amount you usually do and I'm sure you're going to be just fine. Keep in mind that brothers do like to tease. :)
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If your drinking 8 cups of water or more throughout the day you have nothing to worry about. Water poisoning happens when too much water is consumed at one time. This usually happens when some one indulges in a water drinking contest. What happens is the consumption of that amount of water at one time throws of the electrolytes in the body and can cause problems that can lead to death.
You can read more about this From Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. The URL is below.
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