Is it true that you can drown yourself by drinking too much water?

yes, A Californian woman has died after taking part in a water-drinking contest.Drinking too much water can eventually cause your brain to swell, stopping it regulating vital functions such as breathing, and causing death.

Water enters the body when we drink and is removed primarily in the urine and sweat. The amount of water in the body is regulated to control the levels of certain compounds, such as salt, in the blood.

If you drink too much water, eventually the kidneys will not be able to work fast enough to remove sufficient amounts from the body, so the blood becomes more dilute with low salt concentrations.

If you drink too much water it lowers the concentration of salt in your blood so that it is lower than the concentration of salt in cells

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6263029.stm

Yes it is. The cells in your body become saturated and are unable to expel the excess faster than the water is being injested. You have do drink somewhere close to 5 gallons in an hour though. 3 liters in an hour will usually make you puke. There was a news artical not too long ago about someone dying from this during a radio contest. Check msn.com's news archives I think that's where I saw it.

You don't exactly drown yourself, your cells actually burst because they are super saturated with water, so thats why it is important to keep your electrolyte level up when drinking lots of water!

No, you cannot. You CAN die from water intoxication, but you cannot "drown" from drinking water. Drowning occurs when water is taken into the lungs, which prevents the body from getting oxygen. Unless you are breathing in the water as you are drinking it, it is impossible to drown from drinking water.

G'day Staffie,

Thank you for your question.

Yes you can. The official name for the condition is water intoxication. According to Wikipedia, "Water intoxication (also known as hyperhydration or water poisoning) is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain function that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by a very rapid intake of water."

There have been several well publicised incidents including one woman who died in a radio competition which invited people to hold their wee for a Wii. It is also a problem for athletes and people who go to rave parties.

I have attached sources for your reference.

Regards

Reference
Wikipedia Water Intoxication
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication
University of Florida
http://www.hhp.ufl.edu/faculty/pbird/keepingfit/ARTICLE/toomuchwater.htm
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6263029.stm
Water Intoxification
http://waterintoxication.org/

I once knew an old man who had polydipsia (not certain of the spelling). He'd constantly drink water including toilet water and water from his denture bowl. He'd totally messed up his electrolytes and eventually died.

Yes, you can die from drinking too much water. But this isn't the same as drowning. Water intoxication causes the cells in your body to swell up with water and eventually explode, causing vital organs to fail and death ensuing withing minutes.

You don't actually "drown" yourself but there is such a thing as drinking too much water. I know it can cause severe health problems and I believe it can even lead to death.

you have to be the biggest loser to just sit and drink 5 gallons of water in an hour

I'm sure you can but you would have to try pretty damn hard,
you would probably throw up quite a few times before hurting yourself.

Yes, you can die but you would need to drink a large quantity of water for that to happen. The normal 8-10 glasses of water a day is not going to harm you.

It's called anoxia(sp) and it has been known to happen,but it takes an offal lot of water to do this.

it depends..

Yes you can dround form drinking too much water if you do not releave yourself on a regular basis. IF you dont drain the vain your blader will explode!

lol loam