The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.

The mother of three children from California died of water poisoning: in what cases is it possible

'28.02.2021'

Source: Clever

28-year-old Californian, Jennifer Strange, a mother of three, won a competition hosted by a local radio station. According to the terms of the competition, it was necessary to drink the maximum amount of water without urinating. The young American never used her prize - a game console: the family found her dead in the house where Jennifer lived. Doctors have established the cause of death: water poisoning, or overhydration, writes "Smart".

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For the same reason, two American Marines also passed away. This happened after they drank large amounts of water after exhausting exercises.

Professor of the Russian Medical University, Alexander Karabinenko, explains that cases of intoxication of the body from excessive consumption of fresh drinking water are rare all over the world. But they are. In a normal healthy person, the kidneys can filter up to one liter of fluid per hour. But if much more fluid is supplied, the kidneys do not have time to cope with the work, and then the water passes through other organs, which begin to swell from a large amount of fluid. The brain suffers the most. Cerebral edema causes seizures, followed by coma and respiratory arrest, leading to death. This happened to Jennifer Strange, whose winnings cost her her life.

Nutritionists insist that no more than two - two and a half liters of water per day is enough for a person, of which he gets a liter with soups, juices, vegetables and fruits, and even bread, which also has a certain percentage of water in its composition. However, when too much fluid enters the body, it not only leads to swelling of individual organs, but also dilutes the gastric juice, which in an unconcentrated form loses its function as a natural barrier to intestinal infections. According to the testimony of American doctors, for a lethal outcome, it is enough to drink six liters of water at a time.

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Most often, athletes face this disease. Tim Noakes, a South African scientist who studies the manifestations of hyperhydration in athletes, says that in cases of high fluid intake, another very serious problem can appear: hyponatremia is when the concentration of sodium ions in the blood plasma falls below 135 mmol / L (normally 136 - 142 mmol / L). For a long time, according to Tim Noakes, because of the fear of facing this phenomenon, athletes were afraid to drink a lot of water. But the lack of fluid immediately affected the efficiency of the body, and for some it ended in death.

As Noakes believes, the trouble is that at the first signs of hyponatremia, which, recall, is caused by a large amount of water intake, the body, due to the lack of sodium ions, gives the brain a signal of alleged dehydration, and the brain secretes an antidiuretic hormone, that is, fluid from the body is removed in a minimum amount, and enters there in volumes that are much higher than the norm. As a result - the same swelling, including the brain. And then - death. Tim Noakes has devoted more than 50 of his scientific works to the topic of regulating fluid balance in the body of athletes. The main postulate that he is trying to convey to the sports community: not a single athlete died of thirst, and several dozen from an excess of fluid. This is evidenced by the observation data published by the New England Journal of Medicine of nearly half a thousand runners of the Boston Marathon in 2002. 13% of them suffered from water intoxication (overhydration) caused by an excess of drunk liquids. In total, as the newspaper writes, from 1985 to 2002, during such marathons, eight deaths associated with overhydration were recorded.

In 2014, a high school football player at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Walker Wilbanks, passed away from severe sodium loss. This diagnosis was made by the school's doctor, Joe Pressler. As it turned out, Wilbanks suffered from increased sweating. Fearing loss of fluid in his body, he drank a lot after training. Once it ended very sadly.

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Wayne University's Associate Professor of Physical Education and Sports, Tamara Hugh-Butler, says another footballer from a different school had died two weeks earlier after arriving for soccer practice in August. After training, he drank about eight liters of water in order, he believed, to prevent muscle cramps. But the body could not stand it. Tamara Hugh-Butler, like Tim Noakes, has been trying to convey to athletes for many years that overloading the body with water is much more harmful than feeling a little thirsty. As the scientists explained, in America for a long time it was considered an axiom that even before the start of training, an athlete must drink a certain amount of water in order to avoid a negative reaction of the body to a lack of fluid. But after training, a person already drinks a lot, since in the process of training with sweat, a large amount of water comes out of him. However, when sweating, much less water comes out than the athlete drank before. As a result, the body receives an excess of fluid. Most people cope with this, but due to individual characteristics, not everyone succeeds.

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