Drinking Too Much Water : Dangerous
July 25, 2009
It has often been suggested many a times to drink as much water as possible. Also, many believe that drinking excess water is necessary to give a beautiful skin, healthier kidneys and it provides body detoxification on daily basis. But is it really true? We try to find out.
Drinking lots of water can damage glomerulus filter in your kidneys. Glomerulus is the first filter in the kidney through which the water has to pass. It is made up of several capillary entities called glomeruli.
When we drink excess water the glomeruli need to work extra to filter the water through them. This causes unnecessary wear and tear of these tissues in long run. Thus, by drinking excess water one is causing potential harm to the kidneys rather than keeping them healthy.
Did you know that drinking water in excess can even be harmful for your circulatory system and increase burden of your heart? Drinking excess water causes increase in total blood volume of the body. This volume is maintained within a well defined system. The increased volume will become problematic for the blood vessels to handle.
Also, since the heart is responsible for oxygenation of this total volume, it causes considerable increase of pressure on the heart.
Excess water in body can flush essential electrolytes from the body. Therefore if one is drinking extreme quantities of water just to detoxify the body they are actually getting rid of body`s own electrolytes. These electrolytes includes sodium, potassium and calcium ion, etc.
These are essential for functioning of many “pumps†(example, ATP pump works by exchange of sodium and potassium ions) in the body. Also, there is no scientific proof that drinking too much water makes the skin glow.
Water is the most sought after remedy for weight loss. But water actually improves your appetite. Drinking water will help passing the stuff right through your GIT with more speed. Also, water is so quickly absorbed by the body that it does not stay in the GIT for long to stop you from getting hungry.
Thing to remember is that too much of drinking water is bad. Otherwise, water is essential for our survival. Key is to know when you are thirsty and satisfy your thirst completely.
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