There are plenty of advertisements that tell you the importance of drinking 2 liters of water a day. This is the official recommendation to help you with your healthy living and for you to be able to operate at peak physical fitness levels.
Considering the adult human body is approximately 60% water it’s not hard to understand that you need to drink it every day. But, is there such a thing as too much water?
There is one thing that should be cleared up before you start amending your drinking habits for healthy living. Not all water is the same. Tap water has a variety of chemicals in it, bottle water can just be tap water, and mineral water is expensive compared to your tap. To make sure you’re drinking high-quality water you should consider having a reverse osmosis water filter installed.
The Short Answer
If you’re drinking water all the time there is a chance that you are over-hydrating. In short, you can drink too much water per day.
How Much You Should Be Drinking
This is difficult to define exactly as your water intake level will be affected by your level of exercise, the temperature, your age, diet, and even if you’re on any medication.
A good general guide to healthy consumption of water is to take your weight in pounds and half it. That should give you a target for water consumption in ounces.
For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, half is 75, you should aim to consume 75 ounces of water a day.
The average adult man could happily drink 3.7 liters a day. But, there is a point when you can drink too many fluids.
Again, because of the variables, it is difficult to give an exact figure for healthy living.
However, research suggests that an average person could drink 17 liters of water across the course of a day without significantly affecting their sodium levels. That’s providing the water was drank slowly throughout the day. If you feel thirsty more often, that means you’re dehydrated.
Excess water is excreted via the kidneys, this process is surprisingly quick. But, healthy kidneys are only capable of excreting approximately 1 liter an hour. In other words, if you drink 2 liters an hour your body will probably cope, but drink much more than this and you could have too much water in your body.
The Effect Of Over-Hydration
Your body continually maintains a balance between electrolytes and fluid in the body. Sodium, magnesium, and potassium are all electrolytes that are needed to keep your muscles and nervous system working properly for healthy living.
Drinking excessive levels of water changes these levels, potentially too quickly for your body to adjust them back. The most serious one s sodium. If levels of these are diluted too much then you’ll get a condition known as hyponatremia, this is effectively bloating, weakness, confusion, irritability, and even convulsions.
If you continue to drink too much water and your body is unable to balance your electrolytes, you can actually experience swelling of the brain. In extreme cases you can then die from your brain swelling.
It should be noted this is extremely difficult to achieve.
Drink clean water, it’s good for you. But don’t overdo it.
