Is drinking too much water harmful?

[yellowperil]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: jumpr
As long as it's not distilled water, you're in great shape. Distilled water basically SUCKS all the nutrients out of your soft tissues.

http://4optimallife.com/Distilled-Waters-Danger-To-Health.html

That site is pretty sensationalistic, but.. the points he brings up are very interesting!

It is very true(although I do not know the extent; ie: if it's as bad as this guy says) that water with no TDS(total dissolved salts) will actively absorb just about anything that can be dissolved in water.

The same is very true for plants. You can NOT give ANY plant distilled water unless it is to flush a toxic buildup of salts(elements, minerals). Since the concentration of salts in the plants' system is higher than that of the water, osmosis will halt the absorbtion of dissolved salts.. and actually start removing them from the plant.

So on that level it makes sense. Pretty interesting... I never thought about that for people..

I'm skeptical about the CO2 absorbtion/acidic thing. I'm pretty sure distilled water has a PH of 7.0 ....

Doesn't drinking water only have trace amounts of minerals? I wouldn't think the difference from distilled water is that great - it seems drinking water would still absorb a lot of minerals, but distilled water a negligible amount more.

I don't buy the 'distilled water in cola' argument in that article because too many confounding (and more important) variables - drinking Coke made with distilled water gives you more degenerative diseases than with tap water? C'mon. That's not even a reasonable inference from the data, I would think. Neither is the title that 'early death comes from drinking distilled water'.

 

[RU482]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: amnesiac
Water discipline? Is that where they pee in your mouth?

Yellow Disclipline

NO, that's a golden shower, silly

 

[dabuddha]

Excessive thirst is one of the main symptoms of Diabetes. Wouldn't hurt to get it checked.

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: yellowperil

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: jumpr
As long as it's not distilled water, you're in great shape. Distilled water basically SUCKS all the nutrients out of your soft tissues.

http://4optimallife.com/Distilled-Waters-Danger-To-Health.html

That site is pretty sensationalistic, but.. the points he brings up are very interesting!

It is very true(although I do not know the extent; ie: if it's as bad as this guy says) that water with no TDS(total dissolved salts) will actively absorb just about anything that can be dissolved in water.

The same is very true for plants. You can NOT give ANY plant distilled water unless it is to flush a toxic buildup of salts(elements, minerals). Since the concentration of salts in the plants' system is higher than that of the water, osmosis will halt the absorbtion of dissolved salts.. and actually start removing them from the plant.

So on that level it makes sense. Pretty interesting... I never thought about that for people..

I'm skeptical about the CO2 absorbtion/acidic thing. I'm pretty sure distilled water has a PH of 7.0 ....

Doesn't drinking water only have trace amounts of minerals? I wouldn't think the difference from distilled water is that great - it seems drinking water would still absorb a lot of minerals, but distilled water a negligible amount more.

I don't buy the 'distilled water in cola' argument in that article because too many confounding (and more important) variables - drinking Coke made with distilled water gives you more degenerative diseases than with tap water? C'mon. That's not even a reasonable inference from the data, I would think. Neither is the title that 'early death comes from drinking distilled water'.

What about things such as Brita and Pur? Are these sucking the minerals out of the water?

 

[damiano]

yes water is dangerous
it rusts
this is why i stick to beer

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: her209
too much oxygen is bad for you

Actually, this is true. At partial pressures over ~1atm, oxygen is toxic.

 

[kami]

I drink 4L a day. You'd need at least 15+ L to do any damage.

The general rule of thumb is to take your body weight in pounds, divide by half, and thats how many ounces of pure water you should have per day...and remember, 33 oz. = 1 liter.

 

[Regs]

You would think it's harmful. When your body starts emitting pain, it's usually telling you something. Stop. Your body will likely reject the excess like it would a night of all nigh alcohol.

 

[shekondar]

Originally posted by: placebo139
I noticed that I drink 2-3 bottles of water daily. More than a liter at least. I know drinking too little water is bad for you... but one of my friends told me what I was having was a little excessive and could be bad for me? Any truth to this?

Only if you get too far away from a bathroom...

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink

Originally posted by: her209
too much oxygen is bad for you

Actually, this is true. At partial pressures over ~1atm, oxygen is toxic.

Oxygen toxicity is something only SCUBA divers really need to worry about.

At 1 ATM (sea level) you can breath 100% O2 for about 24 hours before it becomes toxic. However, as the partial pressure gets to 1.4 and abvove, the risks rapidly become substantial. In Scuba diving on regular air, your Maximum Operating Depth (MOD) is around 220ft. However, noone would dive that deep on air. Nevertheless, Nitrogen absorbtion is the big risk that divers worry about, so many divers use enriched air or Nitrox. This is regular air with additional O2 added - typically 32% or 36% O2. The main benefit of this is that divers can stay down longer without running the risk of decompression illness (AKA "the bends"), but O2 toxicity has to be considered on every Nitrox dive. If you dive 32% O2 Nitrox, your MOD drops to 110 feet - but if you stay at 50ft, you can stay down twice as long as you would be able to on just air.

(not that I am recently Nitrox certified or anything...)

 

[placebo139]

Originally posted by: kami
I drink 4L a day. You'd need at least 15+ L to do any damage.

The general rule of thumb is to take your body weight in pounds, divide by half, and thats how many ounces of pure water you should have per day...and remember, 33 oz. = 1 liter.

holy cow, who would drink 15+L???

 

[DuallyX]

Originally posted by: rbloedow it can lead to an electrolyte imbalance.

...which causes your electrolytes to fall over...which is no good.

 

[Krakerjak]

Originally posted by: kami
I drink 4L a day. You'd need at least 15+ L to do any damage.

The general rule of thumb is to take your body weight in pounds, divide by half, and thats how many ounces of pure water you should have per day...and remember, 33 oz. = 1 liter.

i require 3.4242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424......litres of water daily.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: Krakerjak

Originally posted by: kami
I drink 4L a day. You'd need at least 15+ L to do any damage.

The general rule of thumb is to take your body weight in pounds, divide by half, and thats how many ounces of pure water you should have per day...and remember, 33 oz. = 1 liter.

i require 3.4242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424......litres of water daily.

You weight 226 pounds?

 

[baoytl]

It can also be harmful if you have heart problems, i.e. heart failure.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon

Originally posted by: yellowperil

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: jumpr
As long as it's not distilled water, you're in great shape. Distilled water basically SUCKS all the nutrients out of your soft tissues.

http://4optimallife.com/Distilled-Waters-Danger-To-Health.html

That site is pretty sensationalistic, but.. the points he brings up are very interesting!

It is very true(although I do not know the extent; ie: if it's as bad as this guy says) that water with no TDS(total dissolved salts) will actively absorb just about anything that can be dissolved in water.

The same is very true for plants. You can NOT give ANY plant distilled water unless it is to flush a toxic buildup of salts(elements, minerals). Since the concentration of salts in the plants' system is higher than that of the water, osmosis will halt the absorbtion of dissolved salts.. and actually start removing them from the plant.

So on that level it makes sense. Pretty interesting... I never thought about that for people..

I'm skeptical about the CO2 absorbtion/acidic thing. I'm pretty sure distilled water has a PH of 7.0 ....

Doesn't drinking water only have trace amounts of minerals? I wouldn't think the difference from distilled water is that great - it seems drinking water would still absorb a lot of minerals, but distilled water a negligible amount more.

I don't buy the 'distilled water in cola' argument in that article because too many confounding (and more important) variables - drinking Coke made with distilled water gives you more degenerative diseases than with tap water? C'mon. That's not even a reasonable inference from the data, I would think. Neither is the title that 'early death comes from drinking distilled water'.

What about things such as Brita and Pur? Are these sucking the minerals out of the water?

No.. those types of filters aren't capable of removing things that are dissolved in the water.

Tap water can have widely varying ammounts of dissolved things in it.. That's the difference between soft and hard water. Hard water typically has lots of dissolved calcium(amongst other things) in the greater than 200ppm range. I would imagine that water in some parts of the country is extreme, like 1000ppm or more.. especially well water. I know we've had water that left heavy iron oxide residue.. I can only imagine what the iron content of the water was..

Regardless, that's a big difference from 0ppm(which is what distilled water should be). But again, I really don't know whether it's as bad as the guy makes it out to be. It makes sense in theory, and it is definately true for plants.. but we aren't plants. Maybe our cells have mechanisms that trap necessary vitamins and minerals? I have no idea, but if something like that were the case.. you could almost say that distilled water would be the most pure water there is, ie: our cells should be able to utilize it to the fullest.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: baoytl
It can also be harmful if you have heart problems, i.e. heart failure.

Really.... why? I would think that it would thin out your blood or something, lol.