can you really drowned yourself from drinking too much water?

Question

any doctors out there that honestly know?

what if you drink 2 gallons a day?

Answer 1

Not drowning in the sense of suffocation, but yes, you can cause severe kidney damage from drinking too much water. It is a form of "drowning" your kidneys. You probably aren't even close to that point. Most people don't drink enough water.

Answer 2

You can die from too much water but it is not from drowning in the typical sense. If you drink too much in a short period of time, the kidneys can't filter it out quickly enough and it gets into the blood and waters it down, which prevents the blood from carrying the oxygen and nutrients required by our organs to function. You would have organ failure beginning with the kidneys which then affects the heart. The mention of the frat boy was correct too.. he was forced to down glass after glass of water and not allowed to go to the bathroom and he died. Eight 8-ounce glasses is what is recommended, but some people drink more if they are extremely active. When you're active you lose lots of fluid through sweating (sweating is the skin's way of being a thermostat) so it is still leaving the body and allowing the organs to continue to function correctly.

Answer 3

Every now and then, someone dies from drinking too much water. YES, IT IS POSSIBLE. There are multiple reports in the medical literature about it.

However, two gallons a day would not be enough to hurt you. (It's a LOT more than anyone needs, so you'd just waste all day drinking and peeing, but it wouldn't be harmful.) Too many people still believe the MYTH that you need "8 glasses a day" (or more) -- this has been debunked and should not be followed, because it's completely unnecessary.

Answer 4

No. The real danger of drinking too much water is if you dilute your blood to much the sodium level gets too low and you can have neurological symptoms (confusion, even coma) - but this is in SEVERE cases, and you would need to drink A LOT LOT of water before this happens. Of course the exception is if you have some severe kidney disease that impairs your ability to get rid of water, in which case you will retain water and cause similar electrolyte abnormalities. But as far as drowning yourself - not so much.

Answer 5

You don't drown, but you die of electrolyte imbalance. I think it causes your cells to start bursting. There have been people who died from it. I once read in a newspaper about a little girl who died from drinking a gallon of water - her parents made her drink it as punishment. So, enjoy your water but if you start to feel sick, give it a rest and have something salty.

Answer 6

Drinking too much water can kill you, but you won't drown.

The condition is called In medicine, water intoxication (also known as hyperhydration or water poisoning) 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.

Answer 7

As previous answerers have said, rapid ingestion of water is potentially lethal not from drowning or from bursting from its drinking, but rather it has to do with the imbalance in the body's electrolytes that can lead to seizures, arrythmias and other problems.

Even though your body is 60% or more water, it is in a solution of various electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, chloride, etc. When you drink water, it is hypotonic, meaning, very low or lacking in these electrolyte. In normal patterns of ingestion, your body can normally regulate by excreting excess water through the kidneys. However, when hypotonic solution (i.e. water) is taken in too rapidly in large amounts, your body cannot adjust and lead to abnormal levels of these electrolytes. Your body requires these electrolytes to be regulated in rather tight parameters and when they are out of whack, you end up with deadly side effects.

Answer 8

If one does not stop for a breath, absolutely!
But, that's only considered as choking from sudden inhalation of water at a rapid pace.
Drowning? Don't think so. Mostly, majority of us don't even drink that much, never mind 2 gallons!

Answer 9

I heard that too and that i imagine it would want to be achieveable yet you'll ought to drink quite some water and also you'll ought to drink it really quick. i imagine there develop into some guy I study someplace that did die because he drank too a lot water.

Answer 10

No. I'm not a doctor, but I am very sure the answer is no. Your body would not let that happen. Just like you can't hold your own breath and smother/suffocate yourself to death, you also cannot drink yourself into a drowning death by drinking too much water.