"Water intoxication: A potentially life-threatening condition caused by drinking too much water, which leads to hyponatremia and may result in seizures, coma, and death." (from Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine)
"Water intoxication: an increase in the volume of free water in the body, resulting in dilutional hyponatremia. Common causes are excessive ingestion of water, increased infusions of hypotonic IV solutions, or excess secretions of antidiuretic hormone. Clinical manifestations are abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, and dizziness. It can potentially lead to convulsions and coma." (from Mosby's Medical Dictionary)
They call it "water" intoxication, but does this really mean an excess of ANY water-based liquid? Chicken soup? Orange juice? GatorAde?
I must not be asking Mr. Google the right question.
Sue
Sue
NO. If you're getting sodium with it you should be OK. Yes, you can get hyPERnatremic if you lose more water than you replace, but you get hyPOnatremic if you drink free water (ie, no electrolytes).
Personally, I don't condone watering down sports beverages. After all, they ARE designed to replace electrolytes.
Sucks how head exhaustion sounds an awful lot like hyponatremia, huh?
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