Is there such a thing as drinking too much water?

Question

I drink about 4-6 pints of water a day and some people say that I shouldn't over do it. What does anyone think please?

Answer 1

I'd rather drink water than go through a kidney stone...

Answer 2

YES YOU CAN DRINK TO MUCH WATER ! However the amount you are drinking is ok , the recommended limit is 2 litres a day . if you drink more than this you must take extra minerals to make up for what your body wee`s out , because basically what you are doing with access water is flushing your body , the more you drink the more you will need to go to the loo ,so the more minerals will get flushed away . hence the need for added mineral supplement`s with the more you drink ! there has actually been a death in recent years here in the UK due to a guy drinking nothing but water and not taking any extra mineral & vitamins .

Answer 3

I remember reading about a woman who had been drinking too much water and it caused her a lot of health problems because her kidneys could not cope with the volume of water she was drinking- I think she drank about 20 odd pints a day though. You should be safe enough with 6 pints a day.

Answer 4

yes. Drinking too much water can lead to a condition known as water intoxication and to a related problem resulting from the dilution of sodium in the body.The minimum figures for the body's daily water loss are 500ml through urine and 700ml through breathing and sweating. Doctors advise that to be on the safe side we should drink at least 1.2 litres, which is 2.5 pints, of liquid.

Answer 5

Yes, you can drink too much water.
The official name is hyperhydration aka water intoxication.
Water intoxication is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain function that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by a very rapid intake of water.
As a rule of thumb (healthy) people who drink more than 3 quarts of fluids a day need to be certain to get enough salt.
You shouldn’t drink more than 1 ½ qts of water an hr. or more than 12 qts a day.

Answer 6

Your intake of water is fine, about 2 litres a day for most people.

Too much water can cause the transmission of signals from the brain to fail which could lead to confusion, coma or death, this is due to a lower than adequate amount of sodium (salt) in your electrolytes. Therefore if you are in a situation where you are consuming large quantities of water, perhaps running across the desert, you need to increase your salt intake as well as your water.

Answer 7

You are drinking the proper amount of water. But yes, there is such a thing as drinking too much water. It can cause water intoxication.

Read this:

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/5/f/blwaterintox.htm

Answer 8

It is possible to drink too much. You can actually drown by over drinking anything. Although generally it only happens if you try to drink it all at once, not over the space of a day.

It's not extremely common as most people automatically know when to stop, but if you've been taking drugs and are geting dehydrated very quickly it's easy to drink too much and basically drown!

Answer 9

no there is no such thing the body will automatically pass water not needed to the bladder. you are suppose to drink enough water so that your urine comes out clear. again any extra water not needed will be discharged either in sweet glands but once these are full it goes strait to the bladder vary little is actually stored in the body

Answer 10

well drinking such large quantites of water my lead to an imbalance in body electrolytes especially sodium.

Further, excessive water drinking may be a sign of diebetes or it could be completely psychological. Its best to visit you doctor.

Answer 11

Yes you can drink too much water.

This is known as Hyper Hydration.

Normally your body can deal with it and just let it out, but there have been several cases some of which drug related when the body cannot flush the water out fast enough.

In extreme cases this can result in death.

-Mikey B