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Asked by 967thaf37 to Christie, Dan, David, Dawn, Sian on 20 Jun 2016.
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Dawn Lau answered on 20 Jun 2016:
Consuming too much of anything is dangerous – even water! If you drink too much water in a short period of time, you can get a condition called hyponatraemia. Drinking too much water dilutes the amount of salt in your blood, which causes your cells to swell. Because of the dilution, the salt levels in your blood is reduced compared to the salt inside your cells, and in order to maintain an equal amount of salt both inside and outside your cells, the cells swell up with water. Swelling in your brain is a serious thing and it can even cause death. The most common cause of water intoxication is by drinking too much during/after exercise.
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Sian Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2016:
Good answer Christie. Not something that I am aware happens often – certainly not seen it feature when we list deaths related to food despite things like choking on sports-cap type lids being there before the design was improved!
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Christie Waddington answered on 21 Jun 2016:
In America, there was a lady who died in a water-eating contest because of water intoxication which Dawn described, so it really is very very serious! The hyponatremia she mentioned literally means low sodium in the blood.
Whilst searching for this question, I found that there is a psychiatric condition in which patients feel they have to drink large quantities of water. The condition is called Psychogenic polydipsia.
Famous people have died from water intoxication including the famous artist Andy Warhol!
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