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What in the heck is “water poisoning”?

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Yeah, too much water can kill you

We all know we must have water, or H2O, to survive. Since water makes up 66 percent of the human body, it’s pretty easy to understand that without water, we will not live long. Water lurks in the spaces between the cells, and it is constantly being excreted through sweat, urination, and when we exhale. You have to replace all that lost water so why not just stock up on gallons of it to save time?

In 2010, a 28-year-old California lady entered a radio contest. The contestants had to drink water and not go to the bathroom. Whoever drank the most water and held it the longest was the winner. The lady won the contest (yay!) but ended up throwing up (boo!) and going home with an extreme headache (ouch). Later she died from what is called “water intoxication”.

In the human body, the kidneys control the amount of water that is allowed to leave the kidney and be distributed throughout the cells. If you drink too much water, the kidneys cannot keep up and the blood becomes waterlogged. The water leaves the blood and enters the cells which swell like balloons. Most cells have room to expand because they are surrounded by flexible tissue. But brain cells are packed tightly inside your skull and have no room to expand. Too much water can lead to brain swelling, or edema, which will almost always prove to be fatal.

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