I heard about this on the radio a couple of days ago & it kind of blew my mind honestly... The story was that some lady had the flu or somthing along those lines and drank a TON of water trying to flush out her system. Anyway, because of that, she supposedly developed some weird symptoms (dizziness & such if I recall right) and they took her to the hospital. The story then goes that the doctors diagnosed her with "water intoxication" and that among other things she had allegedly flushed all the electrolytes out of her system...

Unless you're drowning in it, how the heck can 'too much' water be bad for you? This just sounds too weird or me... Anyon else ever heard of this 'nonsense' before???

Not that crazy...

More than 1-2 gallons an hour and you can cause renal failure...

Water intoxication occurs when you drink so much water that your body's osmotic balance is thrown out of whack. Like Manu said, your kidneys can't remove it fast enough to maintain acceptable levels. Blood volume (and hence pressure) rise sharply, filtration into tissure fluid increases, resulting in things like pulmonary oedema, and more dangerously, the organs, including the brain, take up a lot more water than they should, and swell. This causes the brain to press hard against the skull, causing major headaches and dizziness, as described. Worse, the swelling constricts blood vessels in the brain, cutting off large parts of its blood supply. This is what generally kills people who drink much too much water. I'm not sure about it flushing all the electrolytes from her system though.

How scary is that?? I have never heard of that, but sure glad I know now......sheesh. Drinking too much water can kill you..who knew!!!

See shit man. Thats why we have built in things in our brain to protect us from that shit. Get thirsty - drink water. Get full or bloated - stop drinking and use the head. For CHRISSAKES!

Too much of ANYTHING can be bad for the body. I would think 8-10 glasses of water would be fine, and maybe some juice instead of water.