what happens if I drink too much water?

Question

what is the maximum amount of water that a person can drink (per day, or per hour)?

Answer 1

Hyponatremia (excessive water consumption) can kill you. Over 3 gallons consumed in a day will definitely kill you because it dilutes the salts in your body and your cells swell too much too quickly and can explode. 8 glasses (eight eight-ounce glasses = 64 ounces = half a gallon) is recommended a day, but it all depends on your exertion level. You will become overhydrated easier with less activity than with more activity, so it will depend on what you're doing.

Answer 2

You pee a lot.
If you drink a lot of water at once and try to work out you can feel dizzy, but that's it. If you drink a lot of water before you swim in very cold water, you can also faint, which is a bit more dangerous if nobody is around. Other than that, drinking too much water is not dangerous, unless you have a serious kidney disease or problem with potassium levels.
If you drink a lot of water in small quantities throughout the day, you just go to the bathroom a lot. If you guzzle down a lot of water at once, your kidneys can, theoretically, hurt, but you will throw up b/c your stomach will be too full before your kidneys hurt.

Answer 3

Too Much of a Good thing

People have assumed that it’s difficult or impossible to get too much of a good thing and that if you drink too much your kidneys will get rid of the excess water. That’s not necessarily true. On average, during rest the body can rid itself of 1 to 1 ½ quarts of water in an hour through urination. If you drink more than that per hour, in excess of what you need, the body will retain water and dilute body fluids.

The body’s balance of salt and water become quickly diluted. It affects the production of nerve impulses, and impairs mental processes. Cells take on extra water and expand. As they swell, they put stress on the body’s organs, particularly the brain, which has little room to expand within the skull.

Answer 4

You can intoxicate.

The max amount depends of your activity.

"When too much water enters the body's cells, the tissues swell with the excess fluid. Your cells maintain a specific concentration gradient, so excess water outside the cells (the serum) draws sodium from within the cells out into the serum in an attempt to re-establish the necessary concentration. As more water accumulates, the serum sodium concentration drops -- a condition known as hyponatremia..."

"Much of that water comes from food, so 8-12 eight ounce glasses a day is a common recommended intake..."

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

Answer 5

Don't believe there is a maximum amount of water to drink but, I have several medical conditions for which I take approx. l0 meds a day. Was told that if I over hydrate it can decrease the effectiveness of the meds that I need for B/P and heart. Daughter takes hormone shots and was told by her dr. to becareful not to drink too much bottled water as it can dilute the effectiveness of her shots. Janet

Answer 6

If you drink too much water, you'll have to pee. Other than that, not much bad can happen, unless you continue to drink even after you feel "full". Someone exerting themselves outside in the summer can literally drink gallons. A half gallon to a gallon per day is about average.

Answer 7

A friend told me to take your weight in lbs, divide that by 2, and that is how many oz you should drink of water per day.
It really depends on how much you sweat and your salt intake, but there have been extreme cases of people dieing from drinking too much water.

Answer 8

You pee like crazy.

There really isnt a limit on the amount of intake. Of course there is the size of your stomache to consider and you probably dont want to drink more than you can comfortably hold.. good guidelines.. there is a chart somewhere out here that shows minimum recommended daily intake and its all based on bodyweight. I drink about a gallon per day

Answer 9

What will happen is that your bladder is not use to so much liquid and you will have to go to the bathroom more often and you might feel full alot and if water is the only thing you drink then you urine will change to clear most of the time but nothings wrong with that your health

Answer 10

You wouldn't be able to drink enough in a day to hurt yourself. But there is a rare psychiatric disorder that causes the individual to obsessively consume water to the point of essentially "drowning" from the inside out. So, unless that's you I wouldn't worry about it.