Drinking yourself to death – with water

IT’S the age-old, basic health advice: drink plenty of water – but it can be taken too far.

In 2016 a 59-year-old woman was admitted to King’s College Hospital in London with severe abdominal pain. She began to suffer tremors, vomiting and had problems speaking.

According to the journal BMJ Case Reports, she believed she had contracted a urinary tract infection and had attempted to ‘flush it out’ by drinking water. However, she drank enough to cause water intoxication – also known as water poisoning – which happens when there is too much water in the blood.

The condition disrupts brain function and can even be fatal.

Doctors restricted the woman’s fluid intake to one litre a day, which quickly improved her condition and she eventually made a full recovery.