Necessary for Living

I read an article today about a woman who died from drinking too much water in a radio show contest. I'm, of course, saddened by this, but all the more so because I have some experience with drinking too much water.

When I was a freshmen at Kent State, I was a voice major. In an attempt to take care of my voice, I started carrying a gallon of water with me to class and around the dorms. I would drink some between classes and throughout the day. After some time of this, I had started to drink 1.5 to 2 gallons of water per day. Thankfully, I was taking an introductory biology course at the time that covered the urinary system, including electrolyte balance within the body, in which the professor talked about potentially depleting yourself of electrolytes due to excessive water consumption. It crossed my mind to question whether I was drinking too much water, but I figured too much water was many, many gallons. A few days later I was eating some of the cafeterias ridiculously salty french fries. I hate overly salty food. And these fries were perpetually over-salted. On this particular day, however, those fries tasted like a slice of heaven. As I bought and ate a second helping, I mused over what would cause such an intense (pardoning the phrase, please) gut-level attraction to these ridiculously salty fries. And I remembered my professors lecture. It gave me pause, so I started backing off on the amount of water I was consuming. A few months later, I was getting an exam at the doctor and asked him if one could drink too much water. "Oh yes," he said "but you'd have to be drinking quite a lot." I asked what "quite a lot" was. "Oh, if you were drinking, say, 1.5 to 2 gallons a day that would be too much." You can imagine my instant, but internal, response.

"Doh!"

I stopped carrying around the water jug after that.