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Comment by philfreo | Hacker News Reader

> When we drink too much fresh water, excessive water passes into our cells to try to regulate the concentration (which can become futile)... If they absorb too much water, the cells will swell and burst, which can lead to a quick death

I've been scared of this since I was a kid, and nobody ever told me how much water was too much.

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I drank something between 4-6 liters of water in a couple of hours time last summer, and ended up with fever and throwing up excessively for the remainder of the day. I was more or less knocked-out for the next couple of days. So I can definitely tell you that drinking too much fresh water in a short time frame is anything but healthy...

Strictly speaking, you can't know if drinking the water did that. It could just as well have been food poisoning or heat stroke, or you might have been dehydrated prior to drinking that water.

Your kidneys can only excrete 1L/hr under optimal conditions. So you were a victim of water intoxication, but were very lucky you didn't die. People died for drinking much less water than you did.

Being in poor physical shape probably had more to do it.

People drink litres of pop at a sitting too without much effect on them other than being obese.

Read up on water intoxication deaths of marathoners and discover why your simple idea is wrong.

I did I went to Mayo Clinic and NIH websites and the gist of it is too much water results in rapid loss of sodium and your body's cells swell up with excess water.

Drinking litres of pop such as low sodium would also be dangerous according to the descriptions given at those sites, so many people these days just drink pop and lots of it.

Any on-going health problems such as poor health in a person would increase the risk of a serious condition such as water intoxication.

It's probably why there is some sodium in bottled water.

You're also sweating about 1L/h, and are probably respirating a fair amount of water (through your breath) as well.

2-3L/h of consumption isn't of itself excessive, though if you're keeping that up for a period of time, I'd include some electrolytes.

It sounds like you experienced water intoxication and/or hyponatremia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia

You'll get high from it before you'll die.

This is absolutely true. Too much water can induce euphoria, and can lead to dependence over and above what is necessary for survival. Water addiction is a serious illness; large psych hospitals have halls without access to water fountains for these people.

Google before you downvote, folks.

It's a lot of water. Your body will make you feel like not drinking water anymore and sick long before you reach that point. You have to be basically be drugged or completely ignoring your body's signals. You'll also have to go to the washroom soon afterwards as your bladder fills up to deal with the excess water.

Water-drinking contests are a bad idea: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16614865/ns/us_news-life/t/woman...

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