Drinking too much water can be just as dangerous as not drinking enough, a new report suggests. The dangers of overhydration in sports suggest severe consequences for young athletes, which can and have resulted in several tragic cases already. Some of which have even been fatal, according to The New York Times' blog Well.
For athletes, overhydration can be a more crucial concern than underhydration. Hyponatremia, often called water intoxication, is the extreme result of a bodily imbalance between electrolytes (the minerals in your blood and body fluid that carry an electric charge) and water, and it's more widespread than people realize, io9 reported.
If an athlete should develop cramps or feel excessively hot during the workout, they are told to down even more fluids, and if the cramps continue, still more, "until, before you know it, a player will have drunk a gallon or two of fluid or even more, which is something that we know actually happens," said Kevin Miller, an associate professor of athletic training at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich.
The problem with this situation is that according to the latest science, dehydration during sports is rarely, if ever, dangerous, but overhydration definitely is.
Water needs to stay within a healthy range in order to balance the body due to it being a key chemical. People lose water every day whenever they breath, sweat, urinate and have a bowel movement, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The ideal amount of water needed to replenish the body without overwhelming the cells has been determined to be approximately 16 8-ounce cups (3.7 liters) for men and 11 8-ounce cups (2.7 liters) for women, according to Medical Daily.
The study was published in the July 30 issue of The British Journal of Sports Medicine.
