[zorg]

Well, according to this article in the Chronicle, drinking too much water (say 3-4 liters) too fast could severely dilute your blood and cause serious problems. Apparently, a few people have even died from it.

Anyway, all the boring details in there. I figured that it'd be relevant with the upcoming SO races.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/14/MNG1NC82241.DTL

 

[Zignzag]

I doubt if anybody would drink that much water at Sea Otter...

Beer maybe.

 

[Mr.P]

Beer maybe.

Yeah, I understand that 2-3 litres of beer too fast will actually make you feel better for an hour or two. But the next day you might feel like you just rode the Tahoe Rim Trail on a rigid.

Joking aside, a few people have died during extreme endurance events from over-hydration. But people have also died from overexertion, heat exaustion, etc. My point being that extreme endurance puts you in a higher risk catagory for all kinds of issues that are not normally an issue. I guess that "moderation" cliche kicks in about now.

Mr. P

 

[biggz]

Well, according to this article in the Chronicle, drinking too much water (say 3-4 liters) too fast could severely dilute your blood and cause serious problems. Apparently, a few people have even died from it.

Anyway, all the boring details in there. I figured that it'd be relevant with the upcoming SO races.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/14/MNG1NC82241.DTL

There was a report on the news not to long ago about a berkeley student dying from drinking to much water during a hazing ritual. I don't recall ever hearing about this before until the past 6-8 months - I think this is about the third time I've heard of it since then.

Most sports drinks contain sodium and potassium however, so I'm not sure how that would effect low sodium levels. The comment about the kidneys and the brain stem pressure sounds pretty serious though, regardless if you were drinking a sports drink or water.

 

[zorg]

There was a report on the news not to long ago about a berkeley student dying from drinking to much water during a hazing ritual. I don't recall ever hearing about this before until the past 6-8 months - I think this is about the third time I've heard of it since then.

Most sports drinks contain sodium and potassium however, so I'm not sure how that would effect low sodium levels. The comment about the kidneys and the brain stem pressure sounds pretty serious though, regardless if you were drinking a sports drink or water.

The interesting part of the article is they're mentioning that athletes who spent over 4hrs to finish a marathon and drank about 3 liters of water could be in trouble. This is probably not that far off from what a MTBer could drink during an epic ride on a nice summer day.

 

[NiTCOM]

The interesting part of the article is they're mentioning that athletes who spent over 4hrs to finish a marathon and drank about 3 liters of water could be in trouble. This is probably not that far off from what a MTBer could drink during an epic ride on a nice summer day.

I can't imagine when you on an high endurance ride that makes you sweat like hell and you compensate that with h20 than that wouldn't kill you but prevent you from dehydration which can easily be letal. too much water? I guess if you have a kidney problem that would be a bad idea. otherwise the more you sweat the better it is to compensate it like it with h20 or gatorade etc. as soon as you can.

watert is for the healthy fellow very important.

 

[Berkeley Mike]

I can't help but think

that this study has some flaws in it's focus, I expect that the main effect they are measuring comes from a pecuilar part of a sample. If we were to graph the effects of water (or hydration mixture) intake over time and exertion against relative dehydration, proper hydration and over-hydration, that these results would be are the far end of the toe of the bell curve. I would suggest that such results will find their prime factors in body type, athletic ability and event experience, and ambient temperature.
Real life examples of over hydration are generally reported in cases where there are personality disorders (obsessive/compulsive behaviors, psychosis) or the hazing incident in Chico. The Chico incident, keep in mind, was very rare and as was the case of alcohol poinsioning (over consumption of ETOH) there some years back.
Sadly, I think this makes better "news" than anything. It falls into the category of "it COULD" happen. So I wouldn't worry about drinking water 'til your head 'splodes!

 

[Connundrum1]

this is like people who overdose on gatorade, it isn't the water as much as the excess of electrolytes. 3 liters of water shoudln't do anything to you because most of it is sweated off anyway, but too much water will kill you!!! dun dun dun!!!

 

[pacman]

The interesting part of the article is they're mentioning that athletes who spent over 4hrs to finish a marathon and drank about 3 liters of water could be in trouble. This is probably not that far off from what a MTBer could drink during an epic ride on a nice summer day.

If marathoners were limited to drinking what they could carry (like MTB'ers) there would not be a problem. The "experts" do not know how much water the runners grabbed at the aid stations or even from the public offering drinks along the way. IMHO the runners were trying to stay cool more than fighting thirst.

 

[Impy]

that this study has some flaws in it's focus, I expect that the main effect they are measuring comes from a pecuilar part of a sample. If we were to graph the effects of water (or hydration mixture) intake over time and exertion against relative dehydration, proper hydration and over-hydration, that these results would be are the far end of the toe of the bell curve. I would suggest that such results will find their prime factors in body type, athletic ability and event experience, and ambient temperature.
Real life examples of over hydration are generally reported in cases where there are personality disorders (obsessive/compulsive behaviors, psychosis) or the hazing incident in Chico. The Chico incident, keep in mind, was very rare and as was the case of alcohol poinsioning (over consumption of ETOH) there some years back.
Sadly, I think this makes better "news" than anything. It falls into the category of "it COULD" happen. So I wouldn't worry about drinking water 'til your head 'splodes!

The study simply took participants in a Boston marathon and measured their serum sodium at the end. The participants also kept track of how much they drank, and what they drank, and how many times they voided. The number of lows (not lethally low, but low) was more than expected. It did vary by a number of things, mainly length of exercise. The faster marathoners drank less and had better serum sodiums than the slower people in general.

Hyponatremia is nothing new, but this is the first prospective sample of a bunch of people in one event. Rather interesting.

 

[Berkeley Mike]

I think it reveals something else, too

There is nothing like racing. You may think you work out hard in training but racing is another thing altogether. I imagine that this was a very important factor but a perspective not expressed. It isn't something that the general public or the non-racing population would appreciate.