Water - Required but Dangerous?
As we all probably know by now, water is a requirement for the human body to continue living. We are made up primarily of water, and therefore without it, there is no "us." But at the same time, many people do not know that you are able to "drown" yourself (causing death) by drinking *too much* water!
First of all we need to understand what is going on when we drink water. For this purpose we are going to explore the red blood cells and what effect water has on them (or lack of water).
On the diagram we see the three titles, "Hypertonic," "Isotonic," and "Hypotonic," but what do they mean?
Hypertonic is the act of pushing water away. Think of it as being a "fear of water." If you look at the shriveled look of the cells, this is what is happening to your red blood cells when you do not have enough water.
Isotonic is when you are perfectly watered down. This is the ideal shape of the red blood cells. It looks like a small rafting tube.
Hypotonic is what happens when the water is being pulled in. This is the "love of water." Which is what is happening when you drink *too much* water and your body is unable to keep filtering it out.
As you can see, hypertonic is bad because it is sucking the life out of the cells. But on the other hand, the hypotonic solution is also bad because if you look at the cell with the blue coming out of it, it is because it "exploded." There was too much water and the cell could not handle it, causing it to burst. When drinking too much water, this is a possibility of what happens to your cells!
So how much water should you drink a day? How can you be sure you are not drinking too much?
You will find many, many resource online that will assist with helping determine how much water you should have a day, however nothing is more precise than what your body tells you (via your urine color!). Anything else is just an estimate and nothing more. Because of this, here is a chart to assist with determining.
The colors here represent your body and the amount of hydration you have. The reason is that urine is your body's way of filtering out "toxins" and other negative things. If there is not enough water, the toxins are much more compact (causing darker colors). As there is more water, it is spread out, causing lighter colors. You want to do your best to keep on the left side of this chart!
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written by Baniboy, September 16, 2009
Well as far as I know, water doesn't travel in the red blood cells. It travels in the blood plasma. Obviously blood cells will absorb some of the water through the lipids, but most of the time, the amount water in your blood stays the same even if you drink a lot. Then your kidneys just do 2 shifts. Could you provide a scientific source for your article?
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written by negligible, September 17, 2009
Pretty crazy stuff, but I still call bullshit; someone must have added some sort of toxin to something.
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Receiving normal saline by I.V. or drinking profusely will just make you urinate like crazy; however, Hextend drains every water droplet from your skin/limbs to your internal organs (do not give Hextend if the person is only dehydrated, it will kill the patient). A good way to know when to give Hextend is if the person has two limbs blown off and lost massive amounts of blood (do not give Hextend unless consulted by a P.A. or higher.)
Problem, is that the combat life savers (C.L.S.), over in war zones, are given Hextend without prior training and already killed a couple soldiers by incorrectly administering it. Because of this, the military is taking Hextend away from C.L.S. and only giving it to medics.
But I digress, dunno if it is possible for a healthy human being to over-hydrate by just drinking massive amounts of fluid; the person will have to need a terminal illness or kidney and urine track shut down...but the person will have a whole other set of problems then.
Don't worry, I got your back anon.