Water Intoxication - Yikes!

In the midst of the winter blahs and with 5-10 pounds of holiday weight to get rid of, I had a crazy scheme of drinking nothing but water this coming Sunday – and a lot of it. I thought that I would try and see just how many litres of water I could ingest over an 8 hour period while fasting from food. It would purely be in the name of science to see how much I could take in and what would be the effects on my overall mental and physical self.

I started looking around at what sort of achievements had been reached when it came to power water drinking. Hell, I might even be looking at a world record!

Thankfully, I did do some research. It seems that people die from drinking too much water. A little known condition called water intoxication can result in death if too much water is ingested too fast. Now, that is strange indeed.

It turns out that the kidneys can only process about 1 litre of fluid per hour. Consuming too much water too fast can force your blood to become more dilute with low sodium concentrations. The sodium concentration in your blood becomes lower than the concentration in your cells. The water moves from the blood to the cells causing them to swell.

The killer is that your brain swells with the resulting pressure causing headaches and loss of functions such as breathing. Without breathing, we are quite challenged to survive! Thus, possibly resulting in death.

This is more apt to affect the elderly, babies, those having an operation and those participating in extreme physical challenges (marathon running on a hot day). Apparently, water intoxication is a risk for those on the drug ecstasy. The drug makes the user incredibly thirsty and they literally drink themselves to death.

Andy Warhol is perhaps the most famous person to die of apparent water intoxication. He was in for a routine procedure and was fed too much water intravenously.

After putting the fear into everyone, it is quite unlikely that this will ever be a problem for you. It is said that the fear of water intoxication will probably kill more people by driving them to dehydration!

The plan now for Saturday evening until Monday morning is a fruit only fast. I still do not see myself joining the Fruitarians, but I have a huge curiosity about what the short term effects of a fruit only diet will be. I’m even going to give up my coveted green tea for the duration. Supposedly, I won’t even need to drink any water because I will get sufficient amounts from all the raw fruit I’ll be eating. However, I will have a water bottle on the bench when I play hockey on Sunday night.

I’ve been feeling the winter blahs pretty bad this year and I need to get out of the funk I’m in and take off a few of the X-mas pounds. My goal is to do something drastic to kick start a change and bring back the energy. I’ll let you know how it goes in as much detail as possible.

Other posts you may enjoy:

Fruitarians, Canadian Communists and the Biggest Loser
24-Hour Fasting

Fruitarians, Canadian Communists and the Biggest Loser

A little bit of an odds and ends post, here. First off, I’ve found something a little more extreme than even a raw-foodist (which, I am not). The Fruitarians are people that only eat fruit and nuts and only raw. Obviously, no meat either but no vegetables or roots, neither. Those fruits that we sometimes consider to be vegetables, like tomatoes and cukes are included in their diet.

Bravo, if they feel this is the diet and lifestyle for them. I think it would work. I think the nutrition would be there. Living in a cold weather climate, I just don’t think it would be the diet for me. I need cooked food on a cold winter’s night. I don’t think this makes me weak – it’s just the way I am.

However, I get a sense that the Fruitarians are a little militant towards the rest of us savage vegans. They feel that eating vegetables is a form of killing because you kill the plant to harvest it and need to re-plant from seed to see the next harvest. Whereas, a fruit tree just keeps on giving – despite the fact that it is their ‘unborn fetus’ that’s being eaten. In some parts, this is also considered murder...

Next...

Because of the communist government of Ontario/Canada, I am no longer able to drink my green tea from an open mug while in the workplace. I must have a covered cup at all times just in case a flying drop of automotive chemical comes flying from the garage and into the parts department and drops right in my mug and then I drink it and die. As you can tell, the company I work for was audited by the Ministry of Labour this week.

I must also drag out the steel toe shoes – tolerable. They will be removing the vending machines that are located in the garage area. Apparently, despite the fact that all products in the machines are sealed and the machines themselves are sealed, there is still a possibility that the products could become contaminated – possibly by cancer-causing brake dust that could infiltrate the tightly secured machine. Brake dust that we’re breathing in every minute of the day anyway.

I understand the government’s intentions and for the most part they are good intentions. However, I don’t know if a world where we all live to be 120 years old is that great if we have so many regulations that we can’t truly live. Besides, is a government that makes most of its money through selling alcohol, tobacco and gambling products back to its own people, really that concerned with health and safety??

Every day, Fidel and Cuba look more and more like the ideal society. Don’t back down, Cuba.

And then...

I was sort of duped into signing up for a ‘Biggest Loser’ contest at work. I thought it was a one-time shot over a short period of time. That would have been perfect for me as I’ve got a few X-mas pounds I need to shed in addition to the extra 10 or so pounds I’d like to get rid of before the running season is full swing.

Turns out, it’s $20 per month to enter over the next 6 months with only one grand prize winner in the end. There are a few other participants with a lot more available potential than myself. However, there aren’t many with an equal diet and will power. It turns out to be $1200 if everyone keeps playing. Man, I could use $1200! I’d definitely be going to visit Fidel in Cuba on that kind of coin – that’s $1199.99 more than I make writing this blog...

Coming up very soon is my halfway NHL prediction report. I don’t think I’m doing that great but I haven’t really been following the standings much. The NHL is just about to go into a hiatus as the Winter Olympics begin. On that note, I’d like to piss off my fellow countrymen by saying that it will be Russia – Sweden – Canada getting the gold, silver and bronze in Men’s Ice Hockey. Sorry Canada, you’ve picked a questionable team and will not win. However, the women will win gold...

Check out these previous posts:

The Nine Benefits Of Green Tea
Kensington Market – The Vegan Mecca
Bravo, Georges Laraque!