Our body keeps us alive by simply maintaining the right balance of everything that is needed to keep us alive, from blood cells, sodium, oxygen, water, potassium and so on. On that note, we can all agree that getting too little of our essential needs to be alive can be very fatal but just as getting little can be very dare, getting too much of some vital resources and needs for the body to survive can be the ticket to your early death. So what are these vital things that can be detrimental if taken excess.
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Let's talk about water first. I love drinking water, and I realized that in recent times, since we are in the dry season that I can take up to 10 sachet water daily. We still have sachet water here because it is economical while trying to look at health safety compared to drinking untreated water at all. What I do is visit the factory where I get the water from, see the process and I request in numbers above 10 bags with each bags containing 20 sachet water. On days when i do not drink a lot of water, I feel like I am not well energized and so I though to myself when I saw the amount of water I drank if I wasn't doing wrong.
As human's body mass is made up of 60% water we can tell that water is so important for our survival. Water is mixed with different electrolytes in the body at different concentration and when they do so, they either create a positive or negatively charged ion which regulates our internal system especially the body's electrical system which is responsible for a lot of activities like muscle movement (walking, lifting), thinking, other bodily function including sending the right nutrients to the part of the body that needs it.
This is why having less of water which can lead to dehydration can be very detrimental as it can lead to loss of electrolytes in the body which can affect every part of our body. But while in this light, it can affect the body taking in excessive water can lead to the death of a person. There was a radio competition that led to the death of a woman, and the cause of death of water intoxication. It is not only radio water competitions that can lead to death, also people who participate in a marathon and are very overzealous to drink as much water as they can find, can later find themselves on the hospital bed if not in a coffin.
When too much water intake causes harm to a person, it is known as hyponatremia which is as a result of insufficient salt in the blood which is as a result of excessive dilution of the blood that the body electrolytes are as good as not present because they have been over diluted. You begin to ask what the function of the kidneys are; well they do their job but even at that pace, they are unable to flush the water very fast instead it begin to find its way into the cells in the body starting to cause the cells in the body to swell.
This swelling can be quickly seen in the brain because the cells in the brain are quick to swell leading to cerebral edema which can lead to brain damage, seizure, coma, and even death. Death by over hydration gives symptoms of little to no electrolytes in the body system just the same way death by dehydration gives the same symptoms since they are both caused by loss of electrolytes.
Read More
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-drinking-too-much-water-can-kill/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3260684/The-hiker-died-drinking-water-Excess-fluid-lack-food-caused-brain-fatally-swell.html
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyponatremia/symptoms-causes/syc-20373711
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16614865#.VyogwdQgu8o
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470386/
