Drowning in Health?
A few days ago, the class held a discussion
on whether or not drinking too much water was bad for you. This discussion made an impact on me since I
have always been told that I do not drink enough water. As well, I have been in countless situations
where someone complains of a headache or pain, and they are recommended to
drink water. Coming from India, where it
is extremely hot, water has always been the “go-to” solution within my family
and friends when our bodies are in discomfort.
Water is vital to the existence of life.
For thousands of years certain civilizations have prospered because of
the abundance of water near them. Even
now, many towns and cities are positioned along with bodies of water. It is this huge importance that water has in
our lives that causes my interest on the topic of the possibility of drowning
yourself by drinking too much water.
Water is a major component of our
bodies. Around 60% of our body is
comprised of water! However, our bodies
use water for more than building ourselves up.
When cells convert chemical energy from the vitamins and nutrients in
food to other forms of energy, a lot of waste is produced. In order to get rid of this waste, the human
body must have enough water within it to dissolve the toxins and dispose of
them. As well, the body takes out
certain toxins within foods, and uses water to dispose of them. Some of the ways we can see these toxins
leaving our bodies are through urine and sweat.
If there isn’t enough water in our bodies, then these toxins will not be
able to exit our bodies, and can harm us.
Having stated the necessity for water, there are serious consequences
for drinking too much water.
Our cells let objects pass through their
semipermeable membranes in a process called osmosis. Because of diffusion, which is when particles
move to form an even concentration, solvents in our cells will flow from an
area with a less concentrated solution to an area with a higher concentration. When excess water enters our bodies, the
concentration of sodium within our tissues drastically decreases. The process of osmosis will occur, and the
solvent (in this case, water) will flow from the tissues and into the cells in
an attempt to diffuse the concentration of sodium within the cell and its
surroundings. The extreme dilution of
sodium within one’s body is called hyponatremia, and can have serious effects
on humans.
Some of the effects of
hyponatremia include irregular heartbeats, seizures, and death.
This
class discussion interested me because I could relate to it from my personal
experiences. I had always wondered if
constantly drinking water when your body experiences pain would have any
negative consequences. This also ties in
to the discussion the class had earlier about scientific literacy. People might unknowingly cause harm when
advising others to drink more water. It
is important for us to be able to take suggestions, opinions, and facts that
have been given to us and look at them with a critical and scientific
perspective. People often twist things
in order to get what they want, or give detrimental advice with good intentions
because of the scientific illiteracy of others.
By being aware and taking the effort to double check facts and figures,
we can prevent being cheated, and find easier and more efficient ways of doing
things. This knowledge will now help me
out when (inevitably) I am in a situation where water is being recommended to
make someone feels better. Instead of
blindly following suggestions, I can now provide proof to support my argument
that drinking too much water can possibly have negative consequences.
When learning about hyponatremia, I made
sure to check the credibility of all of my sources. The class discussion we had was a trusted
source of information, since the information came from a certified
educator. When doing some more research
on the topic of hyponatremia, I ensured that I checked more than one source,
and I looked up the author of each website that I used to gather
information. The majority of websites I
used ended in a “.gov” ending, showing that it is a government website and can
be trusted. The About.com article I used
was written by Annie Helmenstein, who possesses a Ph. D in biomedical
sciences. This high level of education
means that she knows a lot about biomedical science, and shows that the
information she has put into the article about hyponatremia is most likely
credible.
Bibliography:
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/5/f/blwaterintox.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000394.htm
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