why can`t we drink salt water ,what would happen if you did?????????

Answer 1

We can drink salt water, as long as it isn't too salty. The human body wants to have a constant salt concentration in the body to maintain homeostasis. If you ingest too much salt, then your body has to get rid of it in order to try and maintain homeostasis. However, in order to get rid of the salt, your body has to dissolve it in water. If it takes more water to get rid of the salt than you drank, then by drinking salt water you are dehydrating yourself.

Summary: We can drink salt water, but if you drink water that is too salty you will dehydrate yourself.

Answer 2

We can drink salt water to some limited quantity, that is in normal cases, and some cultures do it as it is the common cure for heatiness (increase in body heat after ingestion of certain types of foodstuff); especially after eating durian ( a sweet fruit with a thorny shell, smelly to some, heavenly to others )

Apparently we do it because it prevents sore throat. :) Well think of it this way, western medicine uses the salt gargle as a disinfectant of the mouth/ throat area, as the properties of salt water tend to wash away certain types of infection and bacteria.

Of course please take into account that if you continously drink salt water, you would most likely send your kidneys into overdrive, and have a higher tendency to get high blood pressure as the salt slowly seep into your bloodstream. And you will most likely dehydrate and your body will fall into shock.

However, if you start to ingest salt water in a survival setting; meaning to say if u were out at sea and were in a survival craft, it is definitely not advisable to drink salt water your urine included.. What happens is that the salt water will increase your rate of dehydration. And when your body loses its water content, various parts of your body's working systems will start to shut down. Downright your body will slowly fall into a state of shock and hallucinations will follow. Soonafter you'll become delirious, and probably walk off the safety craft into the ever loving and waiting arms of the big ol' ocean.

Answer 3

"Water water everywhere but nothing here to drink"

most people quote that if they're stuck on a deserted island. If you drink salt water, the salt from the water would absorb all of the liquids in your body which would cause dehydration.

Answer 4

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 5

Drinking seawater instead of fresh will destroy your kidneys and kill you.

However, you can permanently
drink seawater mixed with fresh in (if I remember
correctly, which I think I do, but is not entirely certain) 1:3 ratio. Your kidneys can handle that. That is a useful survival tip known to sea captains and part of their training.

A French Doctor named Bombard experimented on himself and
concluded you could actually survive drinking pure seawater and
fluids squeezed from fish, provided you drink below 32oz seawater per day. He did it for 63 days and lived.

Some fool once told me you'd die if you drank distilled water.
I was trying to win money off him in a bet but he wouldn't bet because he didn't want to risk my life. Finally I just drank about a quart of it anyway just to prove he was an idiot.
It can taste a little flat but causes no health problems at all.