Water Intoxication: Man, 35, Dies After Drinking Too Much Water

[Asclepius]

When you hear of someone drinking themselves to death, most of us assume it's alcohol-related. But that wasn't the case for a 35-year-old man from the U.K., the Daily Mail reports.

An investigation into how Shaun McNamara died revealed that he drank himself to death after consuming too much water. His body was found on the floor of his bathroom last September.

At first, doctors thought McNamara had suffered a heart attack. It was not until an autopsy revealed that he had downed so much fluid, so fast, that his brain had swollen, the Mail reported.

Source

This is a legit medical condition. I have really only heard of it happening in the hot months of the summer, but I guess it could happen anytime.

BRAIN COMPOSITION IN ACUTE VERSUS CHRONIC HYPONATREMIA

In animals that have hyponatremia for <24 hours, cerebral edema is severe and rapid correction of hyponatremia returns brain water content to normal with no adverse consequences.8 After 3 days of hyponatremia, brain swelling is minimal and brain histology remains normal, even when the serum sodium concentration is maintained at very low levels for several weeks.14 However, if more sustained hyponatremia is rapidly corrected, the animals deteriorate neurologically and myelinolysis develops.8, 15, 16, 17 Similarly, in humans with acutely developing hyponatremia (e.g., subjects with self-induced water intoxication due to psychosis or marathon running and whose hyponatremia developed in <1 day), rapid correction of hyponatremia improves symptoms, alleviates brain edema, and does not usually cause myelinolysis.18 In contrast, in patients with chronic hyponatremia whose serum sodium levels are ≤105 mEq/L (by definition, patients who become hyponatremic at home drinking conventional amounts of water), correction by ≥18 mEq/L over 48 hours leads to transient or permanent neurologic sequelae in approximately 50% of individuals.8

In rats with uncorrected chronic hyponatremia, brain sodium content is low. If the disturbance is corrected rapidly, brain sodium content rapidly increases and an overshoot of brain sodium to supernormal levels occurs.8, 19, 20 Regardless of whether hyponatremia is corrected rapidly or slowly, it takes several days for organic osmolytes to return to the brain.10, 20, 21 The reuptake of organic osmolytes after correction of hyponatremia is slower than is the loss of organic osmolytes during the adaptation to hyponatremia. Similar slow recovery of myoinositol has been shown by magnetic resonance spectroscopy in a human subject with a serum sodium level of 101 mEq/L. Before correction, brain myoinositol was almost undetectable. By 10 days after correction of hyponatremia, brain myoinositol levels were still very low; repeat spectroscopy 2 months later showed a return of brain myoinositol to normal levels.22

The recovery of organic osmolytes by the brain after the correction of hyponatremia occurs at different rates in different brain regions. Of note, there is an inverse correlation between the regional efficiency of recovering organic osmolytes and the severity of myelinolysis that occurs in that region.21

The precise cause of brain injury after rapid correction of hyponatremia is not fully known. However, as experimentally induced myelinolysis is associated with disruption of the blood-brain barrier, shrinkage of endothelial cells may play an important role.23, 24 Disruption of the blood-brain barrier allows complement components, which are toxic to oligodendrocytes, and other potentially neurotoxic components to enter the brain after rapid correction of hyponatremia.23 The localization of complement components corresponds to areas of myelinolysis. Other observations suggest that the osmotic insult created by a rapidly increasing serum sodium concentration triggers apoptosis in myelin-producing cells.25

Citation: Sterns RH - Am J Med - 01-JUL-2006; 119(7 Suppl 1): S12-6

 

[Megz7464]

omg. i didnt even know that could happen...i would have thought it was alcohol related also...that is insane...

 

[Asclepius]

omg. i didnt even know that could happen...i would have thought it was alcohol related also...that is insane...

That's why trainers really prefer that you drink Gatorade or something like that, because it replaces those nutrients that your body is losing.

 

[VentMedic]

Death due to hyponatremia has been in the news alot over the past few years with fraternity initiations and last year a water drinking contest hosted by a radio station in San Francisco resulted in a woman's death.

Recent thread:

http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=5312&highlight=hyponatremia

 

[Epi-do]

I just recently wrote a paper about hyponatremia for medic class. Who would have ever thought drinking water would be a bad thing?

 

[VentMedic]

We have had people admitted to the hospital with hyponatremia from taking the "water for good health, clear skin and weight loss" thing a little too far. They thought if the recommended amount is good, more should be be even better.

 

[Asclepius]

I just recently wrote a paper about hyponatremia for medic class. Who would have ever thought drinking water would be a bad thing?

Share it with us? Maybe we'll learn something from you we didn't know.

 

[Epi-do]

I would be happy to share the paper. I just tried to upload it and it was too large of a file. I then divided it into 3 different sections and it was still too large. If anyone that would like to read it wants to give me their email, I would be happy to send it to you.

In the meantime, I will keep messing with it to get it into a small enough file (actually multiple files) that it can be posted.

 

[Asclepius]

You must have images in it? Try resizing the pictures that you put in it, if you have images. Those tend to make a paper huge sometimes.

 

[Epi-do]

After removing the pictures, cover page, tables of contents, and abstract, I am still as 64 KB. I will keep working on trying to get it broken into small enough sections to be able to post it.

 

[Asclepius]

I PM'd you my email address. I'd really like to read the whole paper. Thanks.

 

[Epi-do]

I just emailed it to you. If you can figure out a way to get it in a form that can be shared with everyone here, feel free to do whatever and share it.

 

[Arkymedic]

This is a legit medical condition. I have really only heard of it happening in the hot months of the summer, but I guess it could happen anytime.



Citation: Sterns RH - Am J Med - 01-JUL-2006; 119(7 Suppl 1): S12-6

This can be seen with chronic alcoholics. They are so use to the physical body mechanics of drinking that they replace the alcohol with large amounts of H2O.

 

[firetender]

There are no limits to the creativity of the human being when it comes to self destruction in the pursuit of happiness.

 

[BossyCow]

Hubby just had his second case of this. One a guy in jail who went so far as to drink the blue water out of the toilet in his cell. The second was a sweet little old lady who was trying to be 'healthy'

 

[slepyii]

Hey all,

I have agreed to host the paper Epi-do wrote on the subject. Anyone that is interested can download it from the following link; Hyponatremia.doc.

- Timothy

 

[indygirl14]

Epi--try to PDF it...if you don't have Adobe writer, go to adobe.com and they allow you like 3 or 5 PDF's for free...

 

[slepyii]

For anyone that is interested I have also converted and posted a PDF version of the document. You can download it from: Hyponatremia.pdf

- Timothy

 

[Epi-do]

Thanks Timothy!

If anyone chooses to read it, I would love to hear any feedback you may have.

 

[So. IL Medic]

I just recently wrote a paper about hyponatremia for medic class. Who would have ever thought drinking water would be a bad thing?

A toxicologist once shared an axiom with me - there is no such thing as a toxic substance, only a toxic dose. Meaning anything can be harmful if ingested in the wrong amount.