Consuming Too Much Water May Have A Fatal Effect On The Body

You may have heard one too many people telling you to make sure you're always hydrated to be healthy. Well, as the people most commonly say, having too much of something can be bad for you. A new study claims that drinking too much water may cause potentially fatal water intoxication. The study also identified the mechanism that regulates fluid intake in the human body and stops us from over-drinking.

Indian Express reported that the new study is the first to identify the mechanism that regulates fluid intake in the human body and stops us from over-drinking. Led by researchers from Monash University in Australia, the study questions the popular idea that we should drink eight glasses of water a day for good health.

The study showed that 'swallowing inhibition' is activated by the brain after you have consumed too much liquid. This helps maintain tightly calibrated volumes of water in the body. "If we just do what our body demands us to we will probably get it right - just drink according to thirst rather than an elaborate schedule," said Michael Farrell, associate professor at Monash. 

For the study, researchers asked participants to rate the amount of effort required to swallow water under two different conditions, one after exercise when they were thirsty and the next is when they were persuaded to drink an excess amount of water. Findings showed that three-fold increase in the effort after over-drinking, Business Standard reported.

"Here for the first time, we found effort-full swallowing after drinking excess water which meant they were having to overcome some sort of resistance. This was compatible with our notion that the swallowing reflex becomes inhibited once enough water has been drunk," Professor Farrell said. "This was compatible with our notion that the swallowing reflex becomes inhibited once enough water has been drunk."

According to Science Daily, Professor Farrell, who also works in the Monash University Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the activity in different parts of the brain, focusing mainly on the short period before swallowing. The fMRI showed that the right prefrontal areas of the brain were more active when the participants were attempting to swallow using much effort, which suggests that the frontal cortex steps in to reverse the swallowing inhibition so drinking could happen according to how the researchers wanted.

"There have been cases when athletes in marathons were told to load up with water and died, in certain circumstances, because they slavishly followed these recommendations and drank far in excess of need," he said. Meanwhile, it was also said in the study that consuming excessive amount of water puts the body at risk of water intoxication or hyponatremia, which happens when the vital levels of sodium in the blood become abnormally low. Symptoms can range from lethargy and nausea to convulsions and coma.