Ian drinks 3 pints of water during a long hike. He drinks 1 1/2 more cups of water when he gets home.
How many cups of water did Ian drink all together?
Answers
Answer:
Anything in excess is counterproductive. Water is no exception. I remember a patient in my clinic who presented with altered behavior since few hours. I got his sodium tested and it was pretty low .On inquiry, his wife revealed that since few days he has been religiously drinking more than 10 liters of water per day. His spiritual 'mom' has advised him to gulp gallons of water down the throat to purge toxins out of the system. He drank more than his kidney could excrete resulting into drop in sodium levels (hyponatremia). Sudden fall in sodium levels is an extremely dangerous medical condition which can even lead to death .
Kidneys can excrete up to 20 liters of water per day but that is dependent on amount of solute intake and secretion of a hormone called ADH (anti-diuretic hormone). Excessive consumption of water should result in suppression of ADH hormone which results in passing dilute urine. Some individuals have defect in ADH secretion and despite consuming large amount of water, fail to suppress ADH secretion which results in water retention and thereby drop in sodium levels, as in my patient .
So the moot question is how much water should one drink ?
Well, that depends on your thirst. Thirst is a very sensitive mechanism to regulate water intake. Under normal physiological conditions, drinking enough water to quench your thirst is good to keep you healthy .
Celebrities and few practitioners of alternative medicine exaggerate the value of water. Water is not over-rated but drinking too much of it is not too safe, either.