Overhydration. Huh?

[Bibendum]

There have been several cases of fatal hyponatremia during collage fraternity hazings, where young men have been forced to drink a large quantity of water in a short period of time.

Most recently about a year ago at Cal. State Chico.

What makes this a bit weird, for me anyway, I've never even heard of such a thing before. Never knew it existed. Were you checked for diabetes?

If you are doing a lot of physical exertion, and only replacing fluids with water you can still get dehydrated because you are not replacing any of the electrolytes in your body. You can also get dehydrated if you are only drinking electrolyte replacement drinks (gatorade, cytomax, etc.) but no water. Happens to people quite often during marathons, multi-day bikes rides, etc.

 

[jakubson]

There have been several cases of fatal hyponatremia during collage fraternity hazings, where young men have been forced to drink a large quantity of water in a short period of time.

I believe I read an article that mentioned three factors:

1. Amount of water
2. Amount of time over which the water is consumed
3. High level of physical activity

Based on this, a diver has little to worry about, since the level of physical activity is nothing like running a marathon, and of course most of us can't be drinking water and diving at the same time.

I believe most of the fatalities had to do with marathon runners, and hazing (where water intake was combined with hard exercise).

Thanks, GoBlue, for the detailed info.

 

[ChillyWaters]

Is that two gallons if you didn't lose moisture through sweating and urination?

I hope that if you drank two gallons of water that you'd stop for a pee break, otherwise it may be your bladder exploding, not overhydration, that kills you.

I just read an article on overhydration like 4 months ago. It stated that 3 people have died of overhydration in the past 10 years, all of them were running a marathon at the time. So I don't think it's too much of concern.

Yes I've heard of marathoners dying from overhydration. They drink plenty of water during the event, but fail to drink any electrolytes. Of course the problem usually begins in the day or two before, where they drink lots of water "in preparation" of the event, but again fail to include the necessary electrolytes in their efforts. Of course, overhydration is generally much less of a worry than dehydration for such athletes.

However, UltimateAG, I'd bet that way more than 3 people have died in the last 10 years. Perhaps the story you read was for marathoners alone? Anyways, it has been reported that your body can get confused between thirsty and overhydration signals. For example, your body has too much water, too little salts, and informs you, but you confuse that signal and think you're thirsty. Thus, you drink more water. It ends up being a bad circle of miscommunication that can kill you. I hope you have better buddy communication with yourself than the average person.

- ChillyWaters

 

[ChillyWaters]

I believe most of the fatalities had to do with marathon runners, and hazing (where water intake was combined with hard exercise).

This is simply because there are lots of salts secreted in your sweat. I've gone for some long hard runs, then come home to see my face caked with salt -- presumably from me, and not the ocean air.

- ChillyWaters

 

[Ishie]

What makes this a bit weird, for me anyway, I've never even heard of such a thing before. Never knew it existed. Were you checked for diabetes?

No diabetes.

I got really overheated on a LONG Jeep trip that does partial trips over huge granite slabs that bake in the sun. I drink a lot of water anyway, but on this trip, I was so hot and thirsty that I drank two gallons of water in a fairly short period of time, and refused all offers of other drinks, figuring I was "dehydrated". (duh)

Didn't get close to death or anything, but made myself as sick as a dog. I was dizzy and disoriented, a bit later on, my GI system went haywire and I was generally miserable. That night, I was CRAVING salty foods like mad, and the next morning, despite hating Gatorade, I saw a family sized jug of it and downed the whole disgusting thing. That made me feel a LOT better (other than the taste).

A total fluke, and not something I've ever been anywhere near since, including during five mile runs. Just a bad combination of factors.

 

[MikeC]

Ishie, what you describe sounds like what happened to me a few summers back, but no granite slabs were involved. The GF and I each had 100oz Camelbaks and additional H2O in the car. Lots of sweating from high temps and humidity. I felt like crap. Eating fresh fruit didn't help because it took so long for the body to process it. After that time we started carrying water and Gatorade.

BTW, what flavor Gatorade did you drink? The orange isn't as bad as some.

 

[scubafool]

I routinely perform hard physical labor in the sun during the heat of summer. While it is definitely important to drink plenty of water, I have found out the hard way that water itself is not enough, you need a lot more than water to replace what is pouring out of your sweat glands.

 

[paolov]

how about some chips to go with water

 

[GoBlue!]

Many very good replies here. A couple points:

Someone asked what a "mOsm" is. Simply, the osmolarity of a solution describes the concentration of solute particles (e.g., electrolytes) per unit volume of fluid. A "mOsm" is a 1/1000th of an "Osm," the unit of osmolarity. The value depends on the concentration of the solute & how the solute dissociates in the fluid. As the osmolarity of a solution increases, the "water concentration" decreases, and vice versa. So, osmolarity also describes the concentration of water in a particular fluid....which takes a little used to getting your head wrapped around the concept.

There's a major difference between "dehydration" and "volume depletion." Most physicians inappropriately use these interchangably, but dehydration means that you have lost more water than electrolytes. By labs, we identify this as a rise in the serum sodium concentration above normal. "Overhydration" can be a couple of things: (1) you've lost both electrolytes and water, but electrolytes have been lost to a greater degree than water, leaving you with a relative overabundance of water; or, (2) you've ingested a LOT of water, and kept your electrolyte composition constant (very hard to do, see my previous post).

Now, for those of you describing a lot of sweating & replenishing yourselves with water..... Sweat contains more water than electrolytes, but both are lost. So, you truly do become "dehydrated," but you were also "volume depleted" (your body volume is directly related to electrolyte composition, namely sodium, not water). If you had measured the sodium concentration in the blood, it would've been high. Now you have two very intense stimuli of the thirst reflex: (1) dehydration & (2) volume depletion. If you correct the dehydration component by only drinking water, you can bring your body's water balance back in check. But, since you haven't taken in the electrolytes, which is what drives your body volume, the thirst reflex isn't shut off....instead you keep drinking, and drinking. Eventually you'll repair the volume deficit by force, but now you've gone from being dehydrated to overhydrated in a short period of time. This swing in your body's electrolytes (specifically, sodium) can be quite dangerous, and neurological symptoms are what predominate.

Now, suppose you had taken in an electrolyte-containing solution from the start. You then repair both the water deficit AND the solute deficit, which solves everything.

As for the marathon runners, there is an association of marathon running with low serum sodium that has not yet been fully explained. It's definitely more complex than simply drinking too much water & sweating. The syndrome is seen more often in small-framed women than men, and slower rather than faster runners. It's been well-described, but the mechanism is not completely understood.

Oh, and to respond to the person that wanted to color her pee pee, lots of medications will do it....but go eat some beets. You may be one of the folks lacking in the enzyme to break down betaine, and you'll end up with red pee pee.

Jim

 

[pharmguy]

And do you have any suggestions of neat-o things we can eat to change the color or our...um...peepee?

A hefty intake of asparagus can make your urine a nice pea green colour so I have been told.

A urinary tract analgesic called Phenazopyridine (presciption only in Canada!) is notorius for causing an orange to red colour in the urine. Many times it produces a fluorescent pink colour - very appealling.

Cheers,

Jason