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Is water always the best choice on a hot day?
- chrisseaton 5y agoThere's this cult of drinking water - with people insisting you should drink more and more water - until people are drinking ludicrous quantities trying to get literally clear urine. They also tend to chug it all at once, repeatedly. As the article says it just flows straight through and does nothing useful. On a very hot day after a lot of arduous exercise I've seen someone collapse from hyponatremia from drinking too much water - washed everything out of their system because they thought they had to drink sixteen litres a day or something. Calm down and just drink a reasonable quantity of water slowly over time, and combine that with eating full meals which people tend to put off if it's hot, making everything worse.
- mdp2021 5y ago> does nothing useful I am pretty sure it contributes in removing salts - which in weather conditions that makes one sweat profusely, worsens the problem. > sixteen litres a day or something Best to remind then that drinking 6 liters of water can be sufficient to kill a human. ( https://scienceswitch.com/2014/12/09/takes-6-liters-water-kill-person/ https://scienceswitch.com/2014/12/09/takes-6-liters-water-ki... )
- jjtheblunt 5y agothe parent comment says hyponatremia in the next sentence, which is removing salts too far, so you're agreeing!
- mdp2021 5y agoI intended to expand, not to disagree :) (but the texts do not flow properly because I in fact read something different - I must have been very tired, if unedited). Nonetheless, different statements on the same point can be very useful, as different voices have different efficacies in passing similar information (one skips this, misreads that but gets an other). Yes, hyponatremia is one possible consequence of overdrinking. I understand that the concentration of salts can be more important of their presence, so over-diluting or under-diluting have consequences.
- wolverine876 5y ago> Best to remind then that drinking 6 liters of water can be sufficient to kill a human How many people does this actually kill? I can't imagine anyone I know doing anything like it.
- mdp2021 5y agoThe point that people do die of it may be less important that the point that people do not know that one can die of it. I have seen very many people in the running cultures that first, have lost contact with the bodily feedback, and/or second, let pieces of information float and influence without getting vetted and grounded. One of such dictums warns "to drink at least three litres of water per day!" with many exclamation marks: I have seen people suffer the consequence (and one brought one to the hospital, where she was told "lady, break that habit") because, simply, it was not the adequate amount /for them/. It is not a difficult error to make if some hydrate and do not eat (intake nutrients), and do not know or feel that, as emerged in these posts, the concentration of salts is key. Anecdotes about people dying for that 6-litres are around and you can find some in the article I linked.
- alisonkisk 5y agoSomeone got sick drinking 3L water per day? I find that hard to believe.
- mdp2021 5y agoI don't know Alison, I could put you in contact - I, by chance, brought her to the hospital the day she got sick. Then again, I was not the assessing doctor and there is always a doubt in putting causes together in a correct frame. This given, have you considered that some people weigh 120, some 80 and some 40? Already because of this, a "3l (or 1, or 9) [for everyone]" should intuitively make little sense. Another point: if the concentration of salts have a meaning, as a few are indicating around the thread, drinking Xl while eating 2Y and drinking Xl while eating ½Y makes quite a difference. These two humble points stress what already written: very generic stubs of rules make little sense. Match that with the missed notion that some things are harmful, match it again with the lazy inclination that makes the body a not-listened-to servant (I know people that do not know they should sleep), and one day or the other some get hurt.
- alisonkisk 5y ago6L in one hour can kill you, not in one day.
- chiefalchemist 5y agoYou can actually cause kidney failure from drinking too much water.
- aaaaaaaaaaab 5y agoCitation needed.
- jerrysievert 5y agopretty much every response on this article has talked about the health problems from drinking too much water, but if you don't want to read up on any of that, maybe the Mayo Clinic will help. hopefully that's enough "citation" other than what The whole article and all of the responses are about. I googled it for you: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256 https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-h...
- aaaaaaaaaaab 5y agoNo Jerry, I was asking for citations about kidney failure caused by excess water consumption. Hyponatremia is not kidney failure.
- chiefalchemist 5y agoFrankly, I live under the understanding that it's semi common knowledge / sense. The body is finite. It has limits. Exceeding those limits and undesirable things happen. https://www.freseniuskidneycare.com/thrive-central/hypervolemia https://www.freseniuskidneycare.com/thrive-central/hypervole... https://www.renalandurologynews.com/home/news/too-much-water-could-be-harmful/ https://www.renalandurologynews.com/home/news/too-much-water...
- aaaaaaaaaaab 5y agoNo mention of kidney failure in the linked articles.
- pengaru 5y agoYou're ignoring extremely hot and dry environments like deserts. I struggle to drink enough water to urinate at all when working on my desert cabin in the summer months. It's completely redefined my perception of how much water the human body can lose to perspiration alone.
- chrisseaton 5y ago> You're ignoring extremely hot and dry environments like deserts. I'm not - I've got professional experience managing healthcare in Helmand in the summer. You still don't need as much water as some people think. I don't know anything about your work or conditions, but my first recommendation would still be to make sure you're eating as much as you need, and then to drink less but more slowly.
- pengaru 5y agoI'd love for you to come build a roof with me in the Mojave in July and demonstrate this drink less water more slowly approach.
- mcphage 5y ago> I’d love for you to come build a roof with me in the Mojave in July and demonstrate this drink less water more slowly approach. I’m not building a roof in any desert during the summer, and am also interested in this drink water more slowly approach.
- hinoki 5y agoI don’t have much experience with living in the desert, but when I hiked down the Grand Canyon I drank 8L and didn’t go to the bathroom. I also ate trail mix and protein bars, had lunch, etc. I was drinking as much as was comfortable to me, since I was worried about getting dehydrated, and still never needed to use the toilet until after the hike was over. I don’t think drinking less would have helped the situation.
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- IkmoIkmo 5y agoYeah it's a bit sad the BBC article starts with saying you need to drink 6 to 8 glasses of water daily, which is a myth, which the BBC has written about multiple times before e.g.: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190403-how-much-water-should-you-drink-a-day https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190403-how-much-water-s.... Drinking too much is rare, but still it happens and it's rooted in misinformation about minimum drinking requirements that's unfortunately not rare, but rather a very common piece of misinformation. Surprising to see it on the NHS website too (of course, without any source, but still the claim is made).
- wolverine876 5y ago> There's this cult of drinking water - with people insisting you should drink more and more water - until people are drinking ludicrous quantities > I've seen someone collapse from hyponatremia from drinking too much water I've never heard of this or seen it. Have other people?
- chrisseaton 5y ago> I've never heard of this or seen it. Hyponatremia? Yeah it's documented https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyponatremia/symptoms-causes/syc-20373711 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyponatremia/.... When you hear about people dying from ecstasy it's usually actually hyponatremia I believe.
- wolverine876 5y agoI've heard of hyponatremia, but not this cult of drinking so much water.
- d0gbread 5y agoHydrohomies, at least.
- watwut 5y agoNo. But, I have heard of people acting weird from drinking too much water - after playing game designed to make you drink ridiculous amounts. No collaps tho. Just acting weird (sort of like after alcohol) and discomfort when drinking next cup. The game was stupid, but no collapse or health issue beyond discomfort after drinking a lot. Which makes me thing it is not easy at all to drink to issue.
- wolverine876 5y agoIronically, many people think it is perfectly normal to play the same game with alcohol and collapse.
- hiddencache 5y agoIt appears that the answer is "yes", especially if supplemented by a piece of fruit to replace minerals and nutrients. And even tea and coffee are fine provided that your body is relatively used to dealing with caffeine.
- n4bz0r 5y agoWhy consuming water from caffeine-containing drinks is different from consuming pure water? I've heard many times that drinking tea doesn't count into these daily water-consumption goals, but no one mentions why.
- amalcon 5y agoCaffeine is a diuretic (meaning that it causes you to produce more urine). It doesn't help your hydration levels if you drink something, and then immediately urinate it back out. That said, if you're past risk of dehydration, it probably doesn't make that much difference.
- ineedasername 5y agoPer the article, it's not so much of a diuretic that you lose everything you put in.
- hiddencache 5y agoThe diuretic effect of caffeine. But if you're a habitual coffee drinker your body gets used to the caffeine.
- thebean11 5y agoCaffeine is a diuretic so seems plausible that coffee or tea could have a net-negative impact on hydration. Not sure what's true in practice though.
- ch4s3 5y agoThe net diuretic effect of the 95mg of caffeine found in 8oz of brewed coffee is fare less than 8oz.
- grey413 5y agoA colleague on mine who once ran an ecological survey in the desert mentioned that her fluid of choice for extreme dry heat was V8. Pretty much anything else would cause horrible salt deprivation.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 5y agoI read somewhere about surviving being stranded at sea, that losing salt is not really an issue. The body doesn't care about how much salt it has, only what the concentration of salt is in the blood. As you lose water due to sweating, even through sweat does have some salt, overall the body is losing more water than salt, and therefore blood salt concentration increases. Of course over long periods you will deplete your salt reserves, but this will take a while. So drink more water than V8 or gatorade to keep you balanced.
- s5300 5y agoDrinking sea-turtle blood has been key to a few stranded at sea people's survival.
- lttlrck 5y ago> The Kon-Tiki voyage had proved that ancient navigators were able to survive in the ocean by hydrating themselves with fish juice and drinking seawater mixed with fresh water in a ratio of 2:3. https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/leading-figures/how-to-survive-in-the-event-of-shipwreck/ https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/leading-figures/how-...
- lotsofpulp 5y agoI was wondering how fish juice is defined, and it sounds gross: > The most critical need, hydration, would be solved by squeezing the fluid from the fish and collecting rainwater, supplemented with small doses of seawater that did not exceed one litre a day—one tablespoon at intervals of 20 minutes, allowing the saliva to dilute the salt in the mouth.
- gentleman11 5y agoLots of good information but the writing style is very scattered and wordy
- bserge 5y agoShit country army hydration "pack": half a teaspoon of sugar, half a teaspoon of salt to ~1L of water. Tastes like shit, but damn it cures hangovers. Also, probably hydrates.
- pjerem 5y agoInteresting. Does it really tastes like shit however? That doesn’t sound like your favorite cocktail but it sounds drinkable. I should try.
- mhh__ 5y agoIt doesn't exactly taste good but when I drank it when I was walking on the Moors you don't really care because you're usually in need of the contents.
- bserge 5y agoIt takes a couple of minutes to make, try it. I've used it a few times when I didn't have anything better (like literally any juice) and it was still near vomit inducing lol
- tgsovlerkhgsel 5y agoCCC electrolyte drink: - half liter bottle of water - add half a TABLEspoon of sugar - add half a TEAspoon of salt - top off with orange juice https://cert.ccc.de/old//index.php?title=WHO-Drink https://cert.ccc.de/old//index.php?title=WHO-Drink Haven't tried it myself but I've heard that it does not taste like shit.
- mixmastamyk 5y agoIt's what plants crave!
- squarefoot 5y agoThat movie should have been a comedy, and it's slowly turning itself into a documentary.
- smellsinore 5y agoInteresting that they did not mention beer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Beer_Saved_the_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Beer_Saved_the_World
- fanf2 5y agoAlcohol isn't great in the heat. Pint of beer, pint of water, packet of crisps, is about right.
- _ph_ 5y agoThis is, where alcohol-free beer shines. Or drinking small amounts of beer and larger amounts of water.
- pkaye 5y agoThe book "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" by Tom Standage is really good reading.
- reedjosh 5y agoI do NuSalt with lemon Mio right before and after my runs. Sodium & Potassium and tastes kinda like a margarita. Always keeps me well hydrated. Sometimes I'll also take a multimineral with it to get calcium and magnesium too.
- wolverine876 5y agoUse it just like salt on all your favorite foods. It looks, pours and measures just like regular salt. But it's sodium free! http://nusalt.com/ http://nusalt.com/ That doesn't sound great for rehydration ?
- hprotagonist 5y agoPickle juice! Alternatively, Sekanjibin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekanjabin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekanjabin) And if you add 10:1 dilute gatorade and orange slices, you now have enough information to know where i’ve spent many summer vacations.
- wolverine876 5y agoThanks - do you have any knowledge about the hydrating properties of these drinks?
- hprotagonist 5y agothey’re all mixtures of water and electrolytes, so “pretty good!”
- LeoPanthera 5y agoIn Japan (and, for some reason, Australia and Mexico) you can buy a drink called "Pocari Sweat". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat It's a soft drink specifically designed to avoid you getting hyponatremia, and was apparently inspired by doctors who would drink the contents of saline IV pouches. Like many asian soft drinks it's not very sweet but it's not unpleasant. If you live on the US west coast you can find it in most Japanese supermarkets.
- xzel 5y agoPocari Sweat is also sold all over south east Asia. Great to help ward off a hangover as well. Will second it isn’t a normal western flavored drink but I quite enjoyed it while I was living where it was available.
- vorpalhex 5y agoIf you're in the West, you can usually buy the Pocari bags meant to be added to those big coolers of water for quite a bit cheaper than buying it premixed. I just throw in a scoop and add some to my water bottle as I feel the need.
- xattt 5y agoThis makes me think of little packets of Oral Rehydration Therapy. It’s sold in pharmacies for times of gastrointestinal distress that leads to dehydration. Sugar is added, not for palatability, but to increase electrolyte uptake in the GI tract.
- wolverine876 5y ago> Oral Rehydration Therapy Does anyone know a recipe or brand that tastes good? I've tried different brands, and it all tasted too unpleasant to drink for me, though I didn't have a critical need for it. I also made it at home [1], and tried adding some lemon juice to that recipe. The taste resembled a sports drink, but again wasn't sufficient to drink daily. [1] 1 liter water, 8 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt https://www.britannica.com/science/oral-rehydration-therapy https://www.britannica.com/science/oral-rehydration-therapy
- avnigo 5y agoMilk really doesn’t sound refreshing on a hot day. If anything, drinking milk would make me wanna drink water straight after to wash it down, even if it fully hydrated me. The truth is, water is just fine on a hot day, and if you really do have a salt imbalance, it’s more likely that is related to hard physical activity combined with a hot day, in which case you’d know that a sports drink or salt tablets with water would be just fine. In most cases, water really is just fine. This article almost reads like it was sponsored by dairy product manufacturers.
- wolverine876 5y ago> The truth is, water is just fine on a hot day, and if you really do have a salt imbalance, it’s more likely that is related to hard physical activity combined with a hot day The article says exactly what you say
- professoretc 5y agoI've been drinking milk so long that I'm just the opposite: water makes my throat feel dry and makes me feel more parched than I was before. While I'm sure it's doing a fine job of hydrating me, it kind of sucks that it makes me feel more thirsty.
- flyinglizard 5y agoI exercise quite a bit in 30-35 degrees C and I sweat a ton (it’s not a bad thing as long as you stay hydrated; a natural liquid cooling!). I use electrolyte tablets [0]. On longer rides I also tried Coke (classic) which was quite good too. I’d bring about 1.5l per hour out, riding mountain bikes or enduro off road motorcycles. I was told you need to sip slowly and that when dehydrated the first thing to go is your concentration. [0] https://highfive.co.uk/products/zero?variant=39896116756639 https://highfive.co.uk/products/zero?variant=39896116756639
- chrisfosterelli 5y agoAny long-distance athlete would be intimately familiar with this trade off. At Ironman races you always see a non-trivial fraction end up with debilitating cramps, confusion, nausea + vomiting, or ultimately in the medical tent from low sodium or low glucose. That said, I think "drink water" is still good blanket advice on average. Most athletes I know still drink far more water than the average person through the day, in addition to all the sport-specific fuelling.
- glennos 5y agoThe BBC is a great organisation, but on the topic of milk on a hot day, I’m trusting the Channel 4 News team.
- sedatk 5y agoTurks have this traditional salty yogurt drink called "Ayran" for hot weather, which is pretty much like Salty Lassi in southern Asia. Americans usually get disgusted by the idea of having salt in their drink. I hope they'll eventually come to terms with it. It's hard to find good ayran in the states.
- ineedasername 5y agoWe don't mind it in sports drinks. Something like Gatorade has 270mg in a 20oz bottle. Although it is masked by sweetness.
- anotherevan 5y agoI remember a scene from an Australian TV series in the '80s called The Flying Doctors where one of the characters was stranded in the outback. At one point he took out a pouch of salt, ate a pinch of it before taking a swig of water. Don't know why, but that scene always stuck. Now I know why he did it!