Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill You!

The BBC reported that a forty year old mother living in Huddersfield, UK died as a result of drinking 4 litres of water in less than 2 hours.

She was attempting to lose weight and had started using a drastic diet plan that restricted her to 500 calories per day over a twelve week period and required a high intake of water.

The cause of death was given as brain swelling and the coroner recorded a judgment of accidental death.

The court was told that Mrs Henson was delighted when she managed to lose more than 11 pounds in her first week on the diet plan.

Her husband Brian said “I had no idea that too much water could kill somebody”. He said that she had returned home and started to drink water from a large 2 litre container whilst sitting down in front of the TV.

She then was heard to say that she felt over-full and uncomfortable. After going up to the bathroom she collapsed and then was taken to the local hospital where Mrs Henson passed away the following day.

The coroner, Mr Whitaker, warned of the dangers of consuming such large amounts of liquid so quickly.

Death By Drinking Water

As bizarre as it sounds, drinking yourself to death is quite easily medically explained and perhaps a more often occurrence than you would first think.

Professor Bob Forest, a consultant in clinical chemistry and forensic toxicology at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital explained the dangers.

Not a lot of room inside!

The massive water intake causes the brain to swell, eventually to such an extent that it squeezes against the skull stopping the brain’s control over bodily functions including your breathing. You stop breathing you die!

The fluids that we consume are normally flushed out as either perspiration or when we go the toilet. The body controls how much water is retained in order to regulate the level of salts and other vital components in our blood.

When excess fluids are taken in, our kidneys cannot keep up and this results in our blood being watered down and its salt levels drastically lowered.

The body’s cells then absorb the water but because the salt content is so low they actually absorb more fluids than usual and this results in the cells swelling up.For the brain this is a potentially life-threatening problem as the hard case of the skull doesn’t allow any room for this expansion.

As the brain is compressed the extra pressure will initially result in a steadily worsening headache and a confused state. Eventually the brain stops functioning properly and such activities as regulating our breathing and heart beat stop. At this stage death follows pretty quickly.

It only takes a rapid intake of 3-4 litres of water to kill you!

It would only need a rapid intake of 3-4 litres to create the above situation. Those at particular risk would be anyone taking ecstasy as this promotes both thirst and retention of fluids, anyone with impaired kidney function or anyone on anti-diuretic medication.

Treatment is simply to administer diuretics which help dispel any excess fluids and administration of drugs to combat the swelling. The problem is more in the successful diagnosis. Because of the confused state, patients are often mixed up with those suffering from drug or alcohol abuse.

Ursula Arens, of the British Dietetic Association, explains that although water is vital for our health and fitness we do need to be ware of the dangers outlined above. Under normal conditions, we should look to consume between one and two litres daily, but spread out over the day.

Obviously as the weather heats up our consumption should also increase as too little water also brings its problems too. Dehydration can also cause headaches, dizziness, lack of energy and increases the chance of contracting bladder infections.

“If you are urinating more frequently than every 2 hours that might be a sign of too much fluid intake, especially if your urine is clear” she said. (It might also be a sign of diabetes – so go see a doctor) Ms Arens also said  that drinking dangerously high levels of water is extremely unusual and far less common than the opposite, dehydration.

So be careful! It’s a big bad world out there and even drinking water can be dangerous.