Less water

Too much water can kill ya!

My kids say that’s what I said. But I didn’t. I say (and being mistress of this blog and of my reality, it’s my story you get) I said, “Too much of anything, even something seemingly good or harmless, like water, can hurt you.” Of course, they thought I was ridiculous, and started razing me. Turns out, water can kill you. In 2003, some time after the water-can-kill-conversation around the supper table, one of my children emailed me a finding - from a Chemistry textbook of a Luther College peer. I now keep that email in my file labeled “favorite articles”--

“even water, the compound that makes up more than half of our weight and without which there can be no life at all, is harmful and even deadly in excess. Very much like eating huge quantities of sodium chloride, drinking enormous volumes of water can lead to intolerable and potentially fatal imbalances in the composition of the body’s electrolytes and fluids. The result can be mental confusion, lethargy, stupor, coma, and ultimately death. Medical reports tell of endurance runners who, after drinking huge quantities of water during races, exhibit a set of symptoms called ‘water intoxication’ and then lose consciousness. These runners were hospitalized with seizure resembling those of epilepsy. In another case, a Florida woman died tragically in 1977 from drinking as much as 4 gallons of water a day in an effort to rid herself of poisons she believed were accumulating in her body. It was the excessive water rather than her imaginary poisons that killed her.”

And more recently, there’s the tragic story of Californian Jennifer Strange who died of hyperhydration in January 2007, after participating in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest.

Of course, we most certainly need water: a mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

Memory and focus are on my must-have list.
Too much or too little = not good. Moderation in all things.

“Right? Of course right.” - Yente