what is water intoxication?!

also called hyponatremia, it is when the electrolytes in your blood are not in balace. the electrolytes help carry the nutrients outside of the cells in your blood.

i don't think there is an actual amout of water that causes this, because it all depends on each individual person. for example, a normally healthy person would have to drink a lot more water than a person who is unaware of any helath issues, such as kidney disease.

it all depends on the body's ability to excrete the amount of water that is being supplied. there should be a balance, but if the body is unable to excrete the excessive water (i.e. too much water is being supplied, or the kidneys are not able to process and get rid of normal amounts of water), hyponatremia can occur.

hope this helps!

to accidently bring on water intoxication. Water intoxication comes about when too much water is ingested in a short time, lowering sodium levels in the blood, Low sodium levels can cause an imbalance in the pressure inside and outside individual cells disturbing cell function. The brain needs sodium so a drop in the level also causes the brain to function poorly causing the appearance of "intoxication", slurred speech, confusion, throwing up and passing out.

As sodium levels drop the kidney goes into overdrive to excrete the water and bring sodium back to an acceptable level. The idea of drinking 8 glasses of water a day comes from the idea that increased excretion will wash out more toxins from the bloodstream especially those caused by the breakdown of fat cells during dieting. That much water spread over 12-24 hours can be handled by the kidneys. The most current medical thought is healthy adults should drink water based on thirst not some random measure.

Water intoxication occurs when quarts of water are forced down in a short period. The kidneys can't keep up and become damaged or fails, cells become swollen and bodily functions become impaired. This happens in one of two kinds of situations:

1. If a little is good, a lot is better-athletes who are trying to prevent dehydration will set up a schedule for drinking lots of water during their activity. This doesn't address the problem of loss of sodium so instead of water it's probably better to use a sports drink. Also a water bottle as a pacifier for a baby isn't a good idea. Because of it's size a baby who is on a first year diet with high liquid content should not have more than 4 oz of water a day

2. Sheer stupidity- when frat boys started to be prosecuted for initiation alcohol poisonings, they switched to water. Although water intoxication is rarely lethal if treated. in several cases the young men just left the person in trouble to die. There was the case of the radio contest where participants forced water to win a car. The finalists consisted of a man and a woman. When the woman became ill the people running the contest did not pay attention and continued to urge her on until she collapsed and died. Of course at 2/3 the man's weight there would have been no way she could have been competitive.

Water intoxication - or hyponatermia - is due to the depletion of electrolytes or sodium in your body because of drinking several gallons of water within a very short time. This causes the brain to swell. How many gallons depends on your size and weight. This would not happen in normal circumstances, but only for stupid reasons like having a water-guzzling contest, or sport reasons like over-exerting and over-heating during a long exercise program while drinking a lot of water. Most sports drink contain electrolytes anyway to avoid this depletion.
Also, if you have diarrhea or vomiting and are trying to compensate the dehydration by drinking lots of water, this can weaken your system. This can happen to infants and young children.
But you can drink 4-5 gallons of water in a day and not have any problems. Just don't do this every day, as this would also slowly deplete your electrolytes and cause health problems. The danger is not how much, but how fast you drink such amounts of water.

It's more a matter of how short a period of time that a large amount of water is consumed than by the amount of water per se. That time is just faster than the body can process it and still maintain vital functions.

It's pretty hard to consume that level of liquid though without being forced to, or intentionally trying to win a contest or something.

Much more info here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=waer+into…

Considering the fact that most of us don't even get the 8-10 glasses of water per day that we need to function, it's unlikely to get to the point of intoxication.

Why not do an on line search? It's when a person drinks too much water in too short of time. It causes kidney failure and death,