Posted by Editormum on 17 January 2007 in
News Commentary |
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A 28-year-old mother of three has died as a result of her participation in a contest that I can only describe as criminally irresponsible. Did no one think to consult a physician or even a sports/personal trainer before implementing this idea?!
I don’t know who thought it up, but Sacramento radio station KDND (107.9 FM) promoted and conducted a bizarre contest that they called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii.” The contest was to see who could drink the largest amount of water without going to the bathroom. The last person left standing would win a Nintendo Wii. People were allowed to drop out at will.
According to news reports, the contest began with people drinking 8 ounces of water every 15 minutes. That, in itself, is dangerous. The body cannot process the water that fast. But, according to one participant who dropped out, at some point the amount of water per round increased.
The woman dropped out, placing second, and headed home, telling people that she was in terrible pain, and her head was hurting terribly. Her mother found her body later in the day. She died from “water intoxication” or hyponatremia.
How does this apply to low-carbing? Simple. One of the biggest considerations in weight-loss, regardless of what diet plan you follow, is adequate hydration. A person should get a minimum of 64 ounces (half a gallon) of water a day, and most weight-loss plans encourage the “half your body weight in ounces” guideline. (So a person who weighs 150 pounds should be drinking 75 ounces of water daily, and a person who weighs 250 pounds should be drinking 125 ounces of water daily.) Ellington Darden, PhD. has his patients drink a minimum of one gallon of water a day, and some drink two gallons without ill effects.
So, if these other people can drink two gallons without ill-effects, why did this woman die? The answer is simple. She drank too much, too fast, and she didn’t eliminate the excess.
The key to safe hydration is spreading the water intake throughout the day. You don’t get up in the morning and drink your half-gallon and say “Okay, I’m done.” Most people would vomit if they drank that much at one time. No. You divide the 64 ounces into small portions and scatter them through your day: a couple of glasses upon waking, a glass mid-morning, a couple of glasses at lunch, a glass mid-afternoon, and a couple of glasses at supper. Dr. Darden recommends sipping a gallon of water through a straw from an insulated bottle all day long, with most of the intake before 5 p.m. (He also recommends chilled water because it burns calories.)
Another key to safe hydration is elimination. People urinate for a reason, and it’s not safe to suppress that urge for more than a few minutes. Hyponatremia (water intoxication) occurs when your body has such an excess of water that your electrolytes become imbalanced. Essentially, you flush out all of the salts and minerals that keep your body going. (Hypo = too little, Natr =salt, Em = blood, Ia = a condition of. Thus, hyponatremia is a condition in which there is too little salt in the blood.)
Though it is a rare problem, hyponatremia is most commonly seen in triathletes and marathoners, who consume large amounts of water but do not take time to urinate. Failure to urinate doesn’t just cause bladder pain; it can cause problems with kidney function and elimination of toxins from the bloodstream. The resulting electrolyte imbalance can cause the brain to swell and can cause major organs to shut down. Hyponatremia has also been the cause of death in at least two fraternity hazing incidents.
In my opinion, the radio station and its employees should be held criminally liable, as one of the deadly frat hazings took place at California State University’s Chico campus only two years ago (February 2005), and practically every news outlet in the state (and many across the nation) ran multiple stories on the tragic death and the dangers of overconsumption of water.
Tags: hydration, hyponatremia, water
An Appalling Case of Water Intoxication
A 28-year-old mother of three has died as a result of her participation in a contest that I can only describe as criminally irresponsible. Did no one think to consult a physician or even a sports/personal trainer before implementing this idea?!
I don’t know who thought it up, but Sacramento radio station KDND (107.9 FM) promoted and conducted a bizarre contest that they called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii.” The contest was to see who could drink the largest amount of water without going to the bathroom. The last person left standing would win a Nintendo Wii. People were allowed to drop out at will.
According to news reports, the contest began with people drinking 8 ounces of water every 15 minutes. That, in itself, is dangerous. The body cannot process the water that fast. But, according to one participant who dropped out, at some point the amount of water per round increased.
The woman dropped out, placing second, and headed home, telling people that she was in terrible pain, and her head was hurting terribly. Her mother found her body later in the day. She died from “water intoxication” or hyponatremia.
How does this apply to low-carbing? Simple. One of the biggest considerations in weight-loss, regardless of what diet plan you follow, is adequate hydration. A person should get a minimum of 64 ounces (half a gallon) of water a day, and most weight-loss plans encourage the “half your body weight in ounces” guideline. (So a person who weighs 150 pounds should be drinking 75 ounces of water daily, and a person who weighs 250 pounds should be drinking 125 ounces of water daily.) Ellington Darden, PhD. has his patients drink a minimum of one gallon of water a day, and some drink two gallons without ill effects.
So, if these other people can drink two gallons without ill-effects, why did this woman die? The answer is simple. She drank too much, too fast, and she didn’t eliminate the excess.
The key to safe hydration is spreading the water intake throughout the day. You don’t get up in the morning and drink your half-gallon and say “Okay, I’m done.” Most people would vomit if they drank that much at one time. No. You divide the 64 ounces into small portions and scatter them through your day: a couple of glasses upon waking, a glass mid-morning, a couple of glasses at lunch, a glass mid-afternoon, and a couple of glasses at supper. Dr. Darden recommends sipping a gallon of water through a straw from an insulated bottle all day long, with most of the intake before 5 p.m. (He also recommends chilled water because it burns calories.)
Another key to safe hydration is elimination. People urinate for a reason, and it’s not safe to suppress that urge for more than a few minutes. Hyponatremia (water intoxication) occurs when your body has such an excess of water that your electrolytes become imbalanced. Essentially, you flush out all of the salts and minerals that keep your body going. (Hypo = too little, Natr =salt, Em = blood, Ia = a condition of. Thus, hyponatremia is a condition in which there is too little salt in the blood.)
Though it is a rare problem, hyponatremia is most commonly seen in triathletes and marathoners, who consume large amounts of water but do not take time to urinate. Failure to urinate doesn’t just cause bladder pain; it can cause problems with kidney function and elimination of toxins from the bloodstream. The resulting electrolyte imbalance can cause the brain to swell and can cause major organs to shut down. Hyponatremia has also been the cause of death in at least two fraternity hazing incidents.
In my opinion, the radio station and its employees should be held criminally liable, as one of the deadly frat hazings took place at California State University’s Chico campus only two years ago (February 2005), and practically every news outlet in the state (and many across the nation) ran multiple stories on the tragic death and the dangers of overconsumption of water.
Tags: hydration, hyponatremia, water