Are you drinking more water than required?

February 4,Kathmandu . 60% of our body is water. For this body machine to function properly, it is necessary that every cell of the body gets sufficient amount of water and oxygen at all times. The body should remain hydrated i.e. there should be no shortage of water in the body.

Hydration plays a central role in almost all the activities happening continuously within the body for 24 hours. If there is enough water in your body then-

This was about adequate hydration. But what happens when adequate hydration turns into excessive hydration? In the language of science, this is called overhydration or hyponatremia.

You must have often heard people say that drinking water is good for health. One should drink a lot of water. There are disadvantages of drinking less water, but there are no disadvantages of drinking too much water.

But this is not true.

There is a book- 'Waterlogged: Serious Problems of Overhydration in Endurance Sports.' The author of this book, Dr. Timothy Knox, is a professor in the Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the University of Cape Town. He writes- "Overhydration can sometimes be more dangerous than dehydration. Keeping the body hydrated does not mean that we keep drinking water throughout the day. Our kidneys have the ability to process a certain amount of water in 24 hours. More water than that can accumulate in the kidneys and the body and cause hyponatremia."

According to a water toxicity study published in the National Library of Medicine in the year 2023, overhydration can reduce the amount of electrolytes in the body. This is called hyponatremia in the language of science.

What causes hyponatremia or overhydration

There can be two main reasons for this-

1- Either you are drinking too much water.

2- Or your kidneys are retaining water.

Dr.  says that both the reasons can cause water toxicity in the body. This is also called water poisoning. In this, the amount of water in the body becomes so much that the kidney is not able to filter it out and remove it from the body. In hyponatremia, the essential electrolytes of the body dissolve in water and start coming out of the body.

Before proceeding further, it is important to understand what these electrolytes are, which are removed from the body due to drinking excess water.

What are electrolytes?

According to the Medicine Dictionary of Harvard Medical School, electrolytes are small mineral substances dissolved in water. They work to balance the chemical reactions of our body and the amount of water inside and outside the cells. Their imbalance can cause many types of disorders in the body.

Electrolytes contain these four main elements-

If the amount of sodium or salt in the body becomes very low, then water enters the cells and causes swelling in the hands and feet and inflammation inside the body.

How to Know if You're Overhydrated

Dr. says that if the symptoms of hyponatremia have become acute in your body, then doctors will have to do tests to detect it. But we can usually do a small experiment at home to find out whether we are over or under hydrated.

For this we have to check the colour of our urine.

Under hydrated urine- Look at the urine after urination. If the urine is dark yellow in colour, it means that your body is dehydrated. You are not drinking enough water.

Over hydrated urine- If the color of urine is like transparent water then it means that you are over hydrated. You are drinking more water than required and along with water, electrolytes are also going out of the body through the kidneys.

Normal hydrated urine- Normal urine is light yellow in color. Neither completely transparent nor dark yellow.

How much water should we drink

Water requirement depends on many factors. Such as-