why can't humans drink salt water for hydration?

Answer 1

We get thirsty when the concentration of salts in our body goes up. So if you drink salt water (with a very high conc. of salt, like sea water), you'll end up with a yet higher concentration of salts in your body instead of diluting them. Furthermore, due to exosmosis from cells, they'll get dehydrated trying to fix the water level in the blood.

Answer 2

Because too much salt will make our body shrivel up, it retains salt, I think. It does not dehydrate us since it does not emit anything to take evaporate water. Salt water is too salty anyway, we are humans, we wouldn't like to drink it even if we could. Try drinking water with a spoon of salt in it at home and tell us what it is like.

Answer 3

Actually, we can drink "salt water" but not "sea water." The reason we can't drink sea water is the concentration of salt. Our bodies can't process it properly. Do to the high concentration of salt in sea water, fluid from all the cells in your body would be pulled out to try and flush the excess from the system. This would cause your body to be dehydrated. Then, all this excess salt would be pushed to your kidney's which couldn't handle all of the excess fluids and salt, shutting down your kidneys. Without fresh water, which is the very reason you'd drink salt water in the first place, you'd become very dehydrated and with your kidneys shut down you'd body would quickly become septic.

Answer 4

Even on a ship or island in the middle of the ocean, there can be a "shortage of water" meaning, of course, a shortage of fresh water. This is described famously by a line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

"Water, water, every where
Nor any drop to drink."

Seawater can be turned into drinkable (potable) water by one of a number of desalination processes, or by diluting it with fresh water to reduce the salinity. Otherwise, it should not be drunk because of its high dissolved mineral content. In the long run, more water must be expended to eliminate these minerals (through excretion in urine) than is gained from drinking the seawater itself.

Correction of a dehydrated state is accomplished by the replenishment of necessary water and electrolytes (rehydration, through oral rehydration therapy or intravenous therapy). Even in the case of serious lack of fresh water (e.g., at sea or in a desert), drinking seawater or urine does not help, nor does the consumption of alcohol. It is often thought that the sudden influx of salt into the body from seawater will cause the cells to dehydrate and the kidneys to overload and shut down but it has been calculated that average adult can drink up to 0.2 liters of seawater per day before the kidneys start to fail.

Answer 5

Salt acts as a "dehydrating compound" where it basically absorbs the body's water. That's why it's not smart to drink salt water :)

Answer 6

The term that explains the process is osmosis. The salt water is a hypertonic solution (where water wants to go) and your cells are hypotonic (where the water will leave), because of the lower concentration of water in the cells, the water in your body will be pulled out and end up in the salt water passing through your system.

Answer 7

the explanation you will no longer be able to merely grab a pitcher of seawater and drink it has to do with concentrations. Salt is far extra concentrated in seawater than your abdomen, so whilst it enters the tummy, all the water from all the cells in that section will coming speeding out of your cells to objective to equalize the concentrations. this has 2 instant outcomes. the 1st is that a huge volume of cells on your physique die via surprising dehydration. additionally, whilst your abdomen fills without postpone with water, it motives you to throw up, so which you lose tremendously much two times as plenty water because of the fact the quantity you initially drank. you do no longer could be apprehensive approximately salt on your blood or urine concentrations, you would be long ineffective whether the saltwater stayed on your digestive device long sufficient to be absorbed.

Answer 8

The salt in the water overpowers the water and basically just dehydrates you even more.

Answer 9

because salt obsorts water

Answer 10

because salt dehydrates you!