Jump to content

Is H2O really toxic in very large doses?


TheNextTherory

Recommended Posts

Or if you ingest enough to upset your electrolyte balance. Typically that will only happen if you drink lots of pure water together with losing electrolytes (e.g. heavy sweating).

if you drink a lot of water you will lose a lot of electrolytes in urine.

The kidneys are good at retaining the salts etc that the body needs, but they er not perfect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if you drink a lot of water you will lose a lot of electrolytes in urine.

The kidneys are good at retaining the salts etc that the body needs, but they er not perfect.

 

That's true. Though often additional circumstances are present in fatal cases. This may include not replenishing electrolytes by other means (e.g. fasting) or if the loss of electrolytes is accelerated by sweating. Some of the most documented cases (to my knowledge) are exercise-associated hyponatremia.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or if you ingest enough to upset your electrolyte balance. Typically that will only happen if you drink lots of pure water together with losing electrolytes (e.g. heavy sweating).

Regular tap water can kill you if you ingest too much. Sweating or not. Under normal circumstances it is uncomfortable to do this but not particularly painful (ignorance and contests/competitiveness can be a problem)

 

Pure water is actually a fairly aggressive chemical. Tank liners designed to contain medium strength acids at temperatures of 99 C/ 210 F can fail over time with pure water at 60 C/ 140F.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regular tap water can kill you if you ingest too much. Sweating or not. Under normal circumstances it is uncomfortable to do this but not particularly painful (ignorance and contests/competitiveness can be a problem)

 

Pure water is actually a fairly aggressive chemical. Tank liners designed to contain medium strength acids at temperatures of 99 C/ 210 F can fail over time with pure water at 60 C/ 140F.

 

Well that has little impact on toxicity in organisms, as the water gets buffered rather quickly. The primary means of toxicity is electrolyte imbalance. Looking over cases the most common forms include:

-exercise-associated hyponatremia (i.e. drinking too much while exercising, especially when the liquid is low on salts)

-drinking faster than you can pee out (usually litres at once, expulsion rate is about 0.5-0.7 liter/h), this is often linked to compulsive behaviour.

 

Normally it is not the absolute loss that is relevant, unless you have no means to replenish sodium, which is rather rare. Typical serum sodium concentrations are in the 132-144 mmol/L range. Rapid ingestion of water, especially accompanied by water intake. Around 120-110 mmol/L symptoms appear, which can be similar to heat stroke.

Further dilution can starting to become fatal. Especially rapid change in osmolarity can accelerate harmful effects.

 

But as pretty much everyone is saying, everything is toxic in too high concentrations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.