Originally Posted by lianluo
Hey, just a mild caution. You can kill yourself that way. It's called Hyponatremia-fluids to electrolyte imbalance. I spent several hours in an emergency room after drinking too much water. I'd never heard of it until then.
Hmm. Hadn't heard of that one, so thanks for the heads up. Looks like I should keep my single-setting water intake to about a litre to give a wide margin to the 3-L fatality level. Chugging sports drinks w/ electrolytes instead of water also looks like a way to increase the amount you can chug in one setting.
From
wikipedia .
Originally Posted by wikipedia
A person with two healthy kidneys can excrete about 1.5 litres of water per hour at maximum filtration (other studies find the limit to be as little as 0.9L/h [1]). Consuming as little as 1.8 litres of water in a single sitting may prove fatal for a person adhering to a low-sodium diet, or 3 litres for a person on a normal diet. However, this must be modulated by potential water losses via other routes. For example, a person who is perspiring heavily may lose 1 L/h of water through perspiration alone, thereby raising the threshold for water intoxication. The problem is further complicated by the amount of electrolytes lost in urine or sweat, which is variable within a range controlled by the body's regulatory mechanisms. Water intoxication can be prevented by consuming water that is isotonic with water losses, but the exact concentration of electrolytes required is difficult to determine and evolves over time
So drinking too much water really can be hazardous to your health; TSA should be pleased with itself for protecting us all with their ban and ensuring the the well-trained all-knowing flight-attendants can control our rate of intake of this dangerous substance.
If/when in the future they decide we are mature/adult enough to carry our own water again, they should consider limiting us to a maximum of 1L "for our safety" so we don't kill ourselves in a water binge in celebration of the lifting of the water ban.
On a more serious note, what's a little scary is that when hiking (often alone), I've been known to chug about 1.5 L of water in one setting when near a water source where I can replenish my supplies. Of course, I'm sweating a lot too, which reduces the risk of water intoxication. But maybe I should be mixing in some powdered-gatorade when I do that.