Overhydration. Huh?

[pennypue]

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

ewwwww, I'll have to try that one!!

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.

A personal favorite of mine. Prescription in the states too, but I'll have to see if I can get it in Mexico.

 

[pennypue]

Many very good replies here. A couple points:

Someone asked what a "mOsm" is.........

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.......
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.

Ok.
1. I still don't quite get mOsm. Could you use blond language?
2. Just what IS an electrolyte? I assume I have them. Where'd I get 'em if I don't drink Gatorade? Is there something else I could eat with my water?
3. Beets. :11ztongue Gonna try that.

Thanks for the answers. I love this thread. I always wondered how the whole water toxicity thing worked.

 

[LavaSurfer]

Ok.
1. I still don't quite get mOsm. Could you use blond language?
2. Just what IS an electrolyte? I assume I have them. Where'd I get 'em if I don't drink Gatorade? Is there something else I could eat with my water?
3. Beets. :11ztongue Gonna try that.

Thanks for the answers. I love this thread. I always wondered how the whole water toxicity thing worked.

OK, I gotta ask, Why color your Pee?
Asparagus might make your pee pee green but the smell will scare a Skunk into the next state. Yuck!

Go for cheap vitimins, they don't absorb into your system early enough to be used so they are passed in the urine and create a great florescent yellow / orange! My experience is GNC Vitimins offer the best color.

 

[Diver0001]

you'll end up with red pee pee.

Jim

Wouldn't *that* just freak you out.

I have a couple of questions for you, Jim

1) What signs and symptoms arise as you overhydrate? (Amazing the things that can happen to you that you didn't even know about....)

2) How could you back out of that situation without the need for 2600 hungry leeches?

3) I have the impression from your last post that sport drinks would be better for you than water if you are sweating a lot. Is that the case? (I always thought the thing about sport drinks was just a bunch of marketing bulls*it)

R..

 

[Diver0001]

Go for cheap vitimins, they don't absorb into your system early enough to be used so they are passed in the urine and create a great florescent yellow / orange! My experience is GNC Vitimins offer the best color.

Supradyne tablets that dissolve in water are also good for that. I always thought they did that on purpose so you would know when you needed your next hit....

R..

 

[pilot fish]

One time many years ago, when my daughter was young and had a pet hampster, I had a nice portion of asparagus for dinner. Late at night I got up to pee and thought, sniff sniff, how did that hampster get out of his gage? It was the asparagus

One reason I don't like taking vitamins on a dive vacation is the fact it turns my pee a dark yellow/orange and I'm unable to see if I'm hydrated.

 

[downdeep]

All this talk about peepee is making me feel a little um...anxious. I'll be right back.

Oh, and Doc you can yell Blue so long as your blood runs Orange.

 

[LavaSurfer]

One time many years ago, when my daughter was young and had a pet hampster, I had a nice portion of asparagus for dinner. Late at night I got up to pee and thought, sniff sniff, how did that hampster get out of his gage? It was the asparagus

One reason I don't like taking vitamins on a dive vacation is the fact it turns my pee a dark yellow/orange and I'm unable to see if I'm hydrated.

Hampster piss, yep thats the smell :0

Effective vitimins should absorb and not color your urine to any degree. There is always some slight color change but any food could cause that to happen.

Hard compressed tablets such as "One a Day", GNC etc... don't disolve until they reach the Large intestine where water is being absorbed out of the digestive tract. At that point the micronutrients are of no value anymore. Thus the term, expensive urine. MicroNutrients such a svitimins and minerals need to be disolved with waters and fats in the small intestine and preferably in the first 15 feet of the intestine.

Just some interesting trivia for you all

 

[MikeC]

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

With a small child you can color their poo as well. When my nephew was real small my sister gave him a piece of ice cream cake, colored almost 100% green with food color for St. Patrick's day... Yep, he enjoyed the ice cream and his body just let the color pass thru. His diaper was interesting to say. My sister freaked until mom mentioned the GREEN ice cream.

 

[mstevens]

Ok.
1. I still don't quite get mOsm. Could you use blond language?
2. Just what IS an electrolyte? I assume I have them. Where'd I get 'em if I don't drink Gatorade? Is there something else I could eat with my water?

mOsm is a milliosmole, 1/1000 of an osmole. I can't think of a better way to express what an osmole is than Goblue! did, but I'll try to think something up.

An electrolyte is a soluble substance that forms ions that can make a water solution conductive to electricity. Typically these are metals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, etc. You get them in most of what you eat. Sport drinks are just a convenient and quick way to replace the electrolytes most important to us and most easily lost through perspiration, vomiting, diarrhea.