Too Much Hydration is Bad for Health

This is the result of a scientific study published in December 2007. Hydration can lead to cerebral edema in an extreme case and it has just recently cause the death of an American who had participated in a drinking water contest.

Drinking too much, but how much?

Excessive quantities for hydration means of more than five liters per day.
It is healthy and necessary to drink between 1 and 2 liters of water per day in winter, between 2 and 4 in summer and more. The amount depends on body size, physical activity, the temperature of the environment ...

Athletes may need to drink too much, especially if they participate in endurance events in a warm climate.

Compulsive drinkers far exceed these amounts. This is the effect of polydipsia, a pathological need that constantly encourages drinking, which leads to swallow more than ten or twenty gallons per day.

Complications caused by excessive drinking

The first effect of hydration beyond the necessary is urinating, of course normally beneficial but in excess it causes a loss of salt minerals leading to a deficit in the body besides the fact that the renal system may not support this activity.

The deficit in sodium leads to a particular intracellular hyperhydratation causing cerebral edema as in the case of the U.S. who to offer a games console to its child, participates in a drinking water competition and absorbed so much that it falls after a few hours in a coma. At the hospital, she will not survive.