What Happens When You Drink Too Much Water?

Our body needs the right amount of liquids to function but drinking too much of it can lead to over-hydration. Drinking liquids to an excessive amount can cause serious harm to our health, especially if minerals in our body called electrolytes drop too low too fast. Let’s read what causes over-hydration, its symptoms to look out for, who is at risk for this condition and how can we treat it.

What Is Over-hydration?

Over-hydration happens when we drink very large volumes of fluids such as water and our body holds onto more than our kidneys can excrete in our urine. This causes liquids to build up in our bloodstream and body tissues. Knowing how to measure how much water should we drink daily can help keep us from over-hydrating. But even if we go over our usual daily fluid needs, chances are we won’t develop over-hydration symptoms.  Our body tightly manages fluid balance in so many ways. This means over-hydration can happen for many reasons. That said, over-hydration can lead to a fluid imbalance in our body and dilute vital substances of blood such as electrolytes.

Are There Different Types of Over-hydration?

In order to fix over-hydration, we need to know the process that can cause it. Generally speaking, the 2 different types that involve drinking more fluids than our kidneys can get rid of and retaining too much fluids in our blood.

For example, some people may be more prone to drinking excessive amounts of fluids. Those include:

• Endurance athletes
• People engaged in regular and prolonged physical activities
• People with primary polydipsia
• People with heat illness
• Diabetic Patients
• People with heart diseases
• People with kidney disease
• People with liver disease
• Premature infants
• People with Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (SIADH)

What Causes Over-hydration?

Drinking large amounts of fluids is not the only cause of over-hydration. Our kidneys also play a vital role in fluid balance in the body. It is no surprise that kidney disease is more common in those people who over-hydrate.

But it is not easy to over-hydrate yourself, especially if you don’t have any health issues that impact your heart, kidneys, liver or pituitary glands. For example, your average young adult with no kidney or heart disease would need to drink more than 6 gallons of fluids each day to over-hydrate.

Primary Polydipsia

Primary polydipsia can also lead to drinking excessive amounts of water. People with various psychiatric diseases are more likely prone to the psychogenic type of this condition.

These include people with:

• Bipolar disorder
• Psychotic depression
• Schizoaffective disorder
• Schizophrenia 

This can cause these people to urinate way more than normal. In addition, this can lead them to a condition caused by low levels of sodium in their blood called Hyponatremia.

The other type is called dipsogenic polydipsia which is also called compulsory water drinking. This happens mostly in people who drink large amounts of water to carry a healthy lifestyle. It is also seen in some people with damage to their brain called the hypothalamus.

Polydipsia and over-hydration can lead a person to an extreme form of hyponatremia called water intoxication which is also known as water poisoning or toxicity.

Who is at Higher Risk of Over-hydration?

People who don’t pass urine normally are at higher risk of over-hydration. Also those who take certain medicines that could cause polydipsia or SIADH. These include medicines for depression and anxiety.

What Are the Symptoms of Over-hydration?

The symptoms of over-hydration are caused by low sodium in our bloodstream. Our body aims to keep our sodium levels within a normal range, that is between 135 and 145 milliequivalents per liter. This is because our brain cells are very sensitive to changes in sodium levels in our body. If the sodium level drops too low, our brain cells called neurons begin to swell.  Moderate over-hydration that occurs slowly tends to cause moderate symptoms such as feeling tired and having a very hard time staying focused. When over-hydration happens quickly and vastly, vomiting and balance problems can be developed. As the condition gets worse, you may feel more confused, have seizure and sometimes lapse into a coma. And if you over-hydrate but the liquid level in your blood stays normal then the excess fluids may often move into your cells which can cause tissue swelling known as Edema. When your blood volume gets high, liquids can build up in your lungs and lower legs.

How to Treat Over-hydration

Treatment for over-hydration depends on its cause, the symptoms you have, and the level of their severity. The  treatments for over-hydration may include:

• Restricting daily fluids intake to less than a quart until your sodium levels and symptoms improve over the period of a few days
• Replacing sodium
• Stopping medicines that are causing your symptoms
• Treating the primary condition that caused you to over-hydrate

You may also need to limit the amount of salt you take for the next few days if you are retaining liquids because of heart, kidney or liver diseases. This is because salt contains sodium which causes your body to retain more fluids.

It’s best to treat over-hydration in these ways under the attentive care and guidance of your health specialist. They will monitor you to make sure you stay safe and that treatments are working as expected. If you have severe hyponatremia or water toxicity in your body, you will likely be admitted to the hospital to be cared for and closely monitored by your health specialist.

How to Prevent Over-hydration

If you’re generally healthy, you can figure out your daily liquid needs using some water calculator. Keep in mind that your usual fluid needs may change based on your activity level and duration, age and weather conditions