Can you drink too much water?

[mafogle]

Here's an interesting article about drinking too much water.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/health/14water.html?ex=1114142400&en=4152baa026e288ad&ei=5070

I've often wondered about how much water to drink while backpacking, particularly after being advised by a Philmont Ranger to drink as much as 1L per hour! That day we expected to be on the trail for +6hr (from Clark's Fork over Tooth of Time to Base Camp) with no water along the way - packing 6L/person was out of the question as we just didn't have the capacity. We carried 3-4L/person but dumped most of it when it was clear we didn't need it.

And, I often find while out on the trail that I have to get up in the night to urinate, while at home I seldom have to. This makes me think I'm over hydrated on the trail.

I've heard plenty about the dangers of dehydration. But never hyponatremia (too much water). Has anyone experienced the condition of hyponatremia while hiking?

I wonder what the real danger is of dehydration?

-Martin

 

[DougPaul]

If you look at what actually happens out on the trail, far more people are dehydrated than are hyponatremic.

In most cases, the problem is loss of electrolytes and/or insufficient water intake.

Hyponatremia is more of a desert hiking problem, perhaps because sweat evaporates so quickly that people may not be aware that they are sweating.

Rules of thumb for hiking: you should have to pee at least several times during the day and the color should be light yellow to clear. If you have to pee less often or the color gets dark, you need to drink more.

Also, if you have to drink a lot at dinner (significantly more than you would on a non-hiking day), you are somewhat dehydrated and did not drink enough during the day.

Determining if you have enough electrolyte (largly sodium and potassium) in your system is somewhat harder.

These warnings are for runners. Runners are likely to be pushing harder than hikers, and do not have as much opportunity as hikers to stop, eat, drink, and pee. A number of the (generally less experienced) runners will push themselves to exhaustion, most (but certainly not all) hikers are smart enough to slow down or shorten their hike if they get too tired.

Your kidneys are very good at elminating excess water if you give them a chance.

Severe dehydration or hyponatremia can be deadly, but it isn't hard too avoid either if you learn how your body reacts and give it what it needs.

Doug

 

[mafogle]

I see there's another post on this topic already.

 

[omegaman]

Something similar

Another aspect of the problem (maybe)- Last summer (on a Philmont trek) one of our crew started losing it- It was a hot sunny day and we figured he didn't drink enough water. He kept claiming he did. Drinking more water did not seem to have an effect. It turns out that he was giving away those salty beef stick things and not drinking gatorade. He needed the electrolytes and after we had figured that out and gave him a salt tablet, he immediately perked up and was back to normal within a short time. I think the lesson for us was that not only do you need to maintan the right diet balance as well.

 

[jd scout]

nightly news

On the news last night they talked of a study that was just done and it said that alot of people are drinking TO MUCH WATER while exercising. It said that many were diluting their blood with all the water and that most water should be consumed before and after but not durning. My plan is always take more then you normally drink and drink slowly. Just another opion.