Could You Be Drinking Too Much Water?

Are you over-hydrated?

In an age when the idea that we always need to drink more water is drilled into our consciousness, it’s easy to forget that drinking too much water can be just as bad as drinking too little.

Drinking too much water is called hyponatremia, and it can kill you if you’re not careful.

The human body is a complex, electrical system that depends on salts, minerals, and electrolytes to keep our synapses flowing in a vessel that is more than 60% water. Health requires a combination of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chloride, magnesium, and sulfur. These are considered the major essential minerals to support life.

When you add too much water to the mix, you risk diluting the mineral levels and could experience disorientation and nausea, which could progress to seizures or even coma and death.

I’ve had several patients recently whose urinalysis reports have come back showing they drink too much water and their urine is too dilute for optimum health. They typically have been working hard at drinking a lot of water and are confused that they could have overdone it.

Really, 64 oz. of water a day is plenty if you are not sweating it out in the heat for 8 hours. If you are eating a whole foods-based diet with lots of produce, then you are getting a lot of water from the fruits and vegetables as well to contribute to your overall intake.