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Super Fun Facts

Drinking Death?

I know, it sounds like it can hardly be true, but it can happen! The condition is known as “Water Intoxication”.

Basically, if you drink too much water it can cause serious issues in your brain, due to an imbalance of electrolytes and sodium in your body.

This definitely doesn’t mean that if you do the “Gallon Challenge” (Drinking a gallon of water every day.) you will die, everything that I read mentioned consuming more water than your body can… flush in a certain amount of time. (Pun… Necessary?)

Healthy kidneys have the ability to process roughly 1 quart of water an hour (that would be 4 Cups or 32 OZ). So as long as you aren’t drinking more than that on a daily basis you will be fine!

Water intoxication, also known as water poisoning, hyperhydration, overhydration, or water toxemia is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside safe limits by excessive water intake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

I will say that death from Water Intoxication seems to be quite rare, and there aren’t enough cases for there to be any statistics in regard to this phenomenon, but in 2007 a woman named Jennifer Strange died after a RADIO CONTEST.

The contest was called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” and it is estimated that she drank roughly TWO GALLONS of water in a three hour period.

… she came in second place.

So, be careful y’all! If you’re thirsty, drink some water and stop when you aren’t thirsty anymore!

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1770067/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDND#%22Hold_Your_Wee_for_a_Wii%22_contest

https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/water-intoxication#1