The dangers of over-hydration?

Burgman

A sad story in the Indo today. A report of an inquest into the death of a young, health-conscious, fit man.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/healthy-man-dies-after-taking-diet-supplements-3228136.html

Although the headline refers to diet supplements, this is more relevant:

"Pathologist Dr Ciaran O Riain said that the most significant finding at the autopsy was tonsillar herniation due to swelling in the brain. He attributed the swelling to hyponatraemia -- an electrolyte disturbance caused by lower than normal sodium levels in the blood -- which he said may be related to water intoxication.

He said that it was possible that the salt supplements could have been a contributing factor in the young man's death."

I first read about hyponatraemia on this forum and it may be no harm for people to read up a bit about it. Glugging 3 litres of water just before a race is probably not a good idea, despite all the guidance about hydration etc.

RayCun

The dangers of ****ing 'alternative medicine'

christmas2012

Yeah i read some years back in the irish times of a russian mobster who put a gun to one of his workers heads and threatened him said he'd blow his brains up if he didnt drink a 2 litre bottle of coke within one minute and even got one of his other men to time him..Turns out he drank the coke bottle and then later died from that same thing waterlogging basically he was over hydrated and died from it..

I dont think youre supposed to drink more than 2 - 3 litres within a certain timeframe or you could die..

Also i notice there is a lot of energy drinks with a high hydration solution,which makes it even more dangerous to drink these drinks and if you drink a lot of them obviously there could be consequences for it...

It makes you wonder should these drinks with such high hydration solutions be off the market or made illegal..

ThisRegard

christmas2012 wrote: »

It makes you wonder should these drinks with such high hydration solutions be off the market or made illegal..

Why not make water illegal ?

christmas2012

No,im saying make certain over hydrated solutions illegal,not water,thats just stupid

RayCun

What could be more hydrated than water?

ThisRegard

Wetter water ?

rom

Stop the fear mongering please. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224051/Wee-For-Wii-water-drinking-contest-death-Jennifer-Stranges-family-awarded-10m.html

"Ms Strange is believed to have drunk nearly 7.5 litres trying to win a Nintendo Wii video game system."

Now that is a lot of water in a short period of time.

"Glugging 3 litres of water just before a race is probably not a good idea, despite all the guidance about hydration etc." your getting your guidance from the wrong place

christmas2012

RayCun wrote: »

What could be more hydrated than water?

There are certain soft drink solutions that have more hydration in them like powerade and so on..

People shouldnt drink them either especially in large quantaties..

RayCun

Hydration: the process of combining with water
Hydrated: Combined (chemically) with water

Outside

It's strange they think the salt supplements were a contributing factor, hyponatraemia is a shortage of salt in the body so these should have helped if anything. Maybe he was on salt supplements for so long that his body decreased its own salt production and then suddenly forgetting to take his salt supplement combined with a large intake of water led to the hyponatraemia. So technically it was the LACK of salt supplements that morning was the contributing factor I'd imagine.

Water does a good enough job for hydration, you don't need sports drinks.

Interesting article on hydration and salt intake: http://www.irunfar.com/2012/08/waterlogged-part-ii-trials-questions-and-suggestions-regarding-hydration-and-ultramarathons.html

thebouldwhacker

Very sad. Rip, sounds like a victim of marketing and a lack of basic understanding/ education.

Insane1

Having suffered a trip to the hospital for an IV of 4 or 5 bags of sodium chloride last year I haven't had any problems since reading this:

http://www.ultrunr.com/sodium.html

MrCreosote

Insane1 wrote: »

Having suffered a trip to the hospital for an IV of 4 or 5 bags of sodium chloride last year I haven't had any problems since reading this:

http://www.ultrunr.com/sodium.html

Not sure when that was written, but it's basically a load of rubbish.

"Don't trust your sense of thirst"- all the scientific evidence says to do just this and nothing more. Drink when you're thirsty and not before. The people who get most dehydrated in a marathon are not the slower runners, but the winners and top 5% of the field.

You might lose salt, but you can gradually replace it in the days after the race i.e. by eating normally. People who are low on sodium in a race have drunk too much, not failed to get enough sodium in.

Condo131

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