EDT-321

Roland Dexter Yellowman Jr.

Introduction
Water composes around 50-65% in the average adult human body. There are

people living on Earth.

All living things rely on water. When NASA looks for life on planets, it looks for water.
Obviously water is a necessity to life. Can consuming too much water be hazardous?

Body
A number of people die each year from consuming too much water. Drinking too much water results in an
electrolyte imbalance and throws off the homeostasis of the body. The tonicity produced by excessive consumption of
water can result in death.
If too much water is consumed it results in a hypotonic solution. This means that there are more non-permeable
solutes per volume in the somatic cells of the body rather than the extracellular fluid (ECF). This results in osmosis.
Water flows down its concentration gradient from the ECF to the intracellular fluid (ICF) in the somatic cells. This causes
the cells to lyse and burst. This condition is known as hyponatremia. In addition, hyponatremia is caused via the
following factors:

Diuretic pills

Chronic vomiting or diarrhea

Heart, Kidney and liver

Drinking excessive amounts of

problems

water

Syndromes that affect

Dehydration

antidiuretic hormone (ADH)

Hormonal changes
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Symptoms of hyponatremia involve nausea, headaches, blurred vision and the feeling of fatigue.
One condition that results from hyponatremia is cerebral edema. This is when the brain cells swell. As of
consequence, the person suffering from this condition may experience a seizures, loss of consciousness
and/or stroke. This would ultimately result in the death of the individual. This is a consequence of the
cerebral spinal fluid being hypotonic to the ICF of the brain cells. The severity of hyponatremia is due to
the serum sodium level in the blood:
Severity of Hyponatremia
Mild

130-135mEq/L

Moderate

120-129mEq/L

Severe

<120mEq/L
Table 1. The units mEq/L represents the units for the concentration of the sodium serum level.

(Hyponatremiaupdates, n.d.)
Doctors treat people with hyponatremia via administering them a saline solution intravenously.
The goal of this is to get the blood salinity to around 0.9%. This seems pretty straightforward, but usually
there are underlying conditions that account for hyponatremia and these must be cured or treated for
the patient to recover fully.

Conclusion
Given this Knowledge, the notion of water being harmless for consumption is not entirely true.
One should be careful in how much water one consumes, and drink electrolytes to keep blood salinity
around 0.9%.

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Works Cited
http://www.webmd.com/brain/brain-swelling-brain-edema-intracranial-pressure?page=2
http://rt.com/news/189496-nasa-mars-maven-orbit/
http://chemistry.about.com/od/waterchemistry/f/How-Much-Of-Your-Body-Is-Water.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyponatremia/basics/causes/con-20031445
http://www.hyponatremiaupdates.com/serious-threat.aspx#tag2

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