Your body needs the right amount of fluids to function, but drinking too much can lead to over hydration. Drinking too much fluid can cause serious damage to your health, especially if the minerals in your body called electrolytes drop too quickly.
Let's dive deeper into what causes over hydration, the symptoms to look out for, who is at risk for the condition, and how to treat it.
What is over hydration?
Over hydration occurs when you drink large volumes of fluids, such as water, and your body retains more than your kidneys can excrete through urine. This causes fluid to build up in your bloodstream and body tissues.
Knowing how to calculate how much water to drink each day can help you avoid over hydration. But even if you exceed your usual daily fluid requirement, chances are you won't develop symptoms of over hydration.
The body tightly regulates fluid balance in many ways. This means that over hydration occurs for many reasons. This means that over hydration can lead to fluid imbalances in your body and dilute vital substances in your blood, such as electrolytes.
Are there different types of over hydration?
To correct over hydration, you need to know the process that can cause it. Generally speaking, the 2 different types involve drinking more fluids than your kidneys can get rid of and retaining too much fluid in the blood.
For example, some people may be more prone to drinking too much fluid. These include:
Endurance athletes and people engaged in intense and prolonged physical activity who drink large volumes of fluids without replacing key electrolytes such as sodium (salt)
People with primary polydipsia, especially the type seen in people with a psychiatric condition called psychogenic polydipsia
Persons with heat illness or dehydration
Or people may retain too much water due to health problems such as:
Diabetes
Heart Failure
Kidney disease
Liver disease
Side effects of drugs
Premature babies with immature kidneys
Syndrome of Inappropriate Anti-diuretic Hormone (SI ADH)
What Causes Over hydration?
Drinking lots of fluids isn't the only cause of over hydration. The kidneys play a vital role in the body's fluid balance. So it's no surprise that kidney disease is more common in those who are over-hydrated.
But it's not easy to over hydrate, especially if you don't have any health problems affecting your heart, kidneys, liver, or pituitary gland. For example, your average young adult without kidney or heart health problems would need to drink more than 6 gallons of fluid per day to stay hydrated.
Primary polydipsia
Primary polydipsia can lead to excessive drinking of water. People with various psychiatric illnesses are prone to the psychogenic type of this condition.
These include people with:
Bipolar disorder
Psychotic depression
Schizoaffective disorder
Schizophrenia
This can cause you to urinate much more often. This in turn can lead to a condition caused by low sodium in the blood called hyponatremia.
The second type is called dip so GE NIC polydipsia — also called compulsive water drinking. This happens most often in people who consciously drink large amounts of water to support a healthy lifestyle. It is also seen in some people with damage to a part of the brain called the hypothalamus.
Polydipsia and over hydration can lead to an extreme form of hyponatremia called water intoxication – also known as water poisoning or toxicity. This can lead to terrible symptoms that affect your body and brain.
Syndrome of inappropriate anti-diuretic hormone
Hydration status is also linked to the pituitary gland. This gland is located at the base of your brain and is connected to your hypothalamus.
The pituitary gland secretes a hormone called anti-diuretic hormone, which causes fluid retention. This less common cause of over hydration is known as SI ADH.
SI ADH can be caused by various drugs, surgery, hormone problems, genes, and certain cancers, such as a type of lung cancer called small cell lung cancer. So are some types of illness, such as HIV, pneumonia and stroke.
Who is at higher risk of over hydration?
People whose kidneys do not normally excrete urine are at higher risk of over hydration. People who take certain medications that could cause polydipsia or SI ADH are also at risk for over hydration. This includes medication for depression.
What are the symptoms of over hydration?
Symptoms of over hydration are caused by low sodium levels in your bloodstream. The body tries to keep sodium levels in the normal range, between 135 and 145 mill i equivalents per liter. This is because our brain cells are very sensitive to changes in sodium levels. If it drops too low, brain cells called neurons begin to swell.
Mild to moderate over hydration that occurs slowly tends to cause milder symptoms. These include feeling tired and having trouble staying focused.
Vomiting and balance problems may develop if rapid over hydration occurs. As your condition worsens, you may:
He feels more confused
Having seizures
Fall into a coma
And if you over hydrate, but your blood fluid levels remain normal, the excess fluids often move into your cells. This can cause tissue swelling called edema. When your blood volume gets too high, fluid can build up in your lungs and lower limbs.
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