Everyone, including doctors advise us to drink more water to stay healthy. They claim that drinking more water helps in flushing out toxins from the body and in preventing the formation of kidney stones. But no one cautioned us about the danger of drinking too much water, until the death of Jennifer Stranger, who died after participating in a water-drinking competition. Doctors concluded that her death was the result of hyponatremia (Hyperhydration or water intoxication).

     What happens when one drinks too much water? The kidneys will not be able to work fast enough to remove the excess water from the body. The blood becomes diluted and the salt concentration becomes low. “If you drink too much water, it lowers the concentration of salt in your blood so that it is lower than the concentration of salt in the cells,” says Prof. Robert Forrest, a forensic toxicologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hosptial.

     The water then moves from the blood to the cell, making the cells swell. This swelling is unhealthy in other organs but dangerous in the brain. Since the brain is inside a bony structure, the pressure increases inside the skull. As the brain is squeezed, it throttles regions in the brain that regulate important functions such as breathing. When these vital functions are affected, the person might stop breathing and might even die.

      Our body get its water supply from three different sources. One is from the plain water and the other beverages we drink. Second is from the water content in the fruits, vegetables and salads we eat. And the third source is from various chemical reactions in the body which produces water as a by-product.     

     How much water one must drink? It varies from person to person. People who sweat a lot, people whose job involves a lot of physical activity, people who eat a lot of salty or oily food, people who lead a stressful life – may need to drink more water. The thumb rule is that one must obey the nature’s command – thirst. One must also ensure that the colour of urine always remains light yellow to colourless.
 

     Researchers at the Swedish Medical University found that hysterectomy (surgery for removing the uterus), greatly increases the risk of urinary incontinence (loss of bladder control).  

    Urinary incontinence is an embarrassing problem. It ranges from a frequent urge to empty the bladder to leakage of urine when you cough or sneeze.

      Hysterectomy is the most common gynaecological abdominal surgery. It is commonly prescribed even in benign medical conditions, such as recurring uterus infection, painful periods, excessive bleeding etc. It has been long suspected that hysterectomy increases the risk of developing urinary incontinence but not enough research was conducted.     

     Dr. Daniel Altman, gynaecologist and one of the researchers have now shown that women who underwent a hysterectomy are more than twice as likely to undergo surgery for urinary incontinence. The risk increased most for women who had a hysterectomy before their menopause.

   Overweight persons who reduce their weight, improve their heart health immediately, whether the weight reduction is achieved by eating less or exercising more according to a study conducted at the Washington University School of Medicine.        

    “If individuals want to do something that is good for their heart, then my message to them is lose weight by the method they find most tolerable. They are virtually guaranteed that it will have a salutary effect on their cardiovascular system,” says the study’s author Sandor J. Kovacs, Ph.D, MD, director of the Cardiovascular Biophysics Laboratory.   

     The researchers studied a group of healthy overweight but not obese men and women between ages 50 and 60. Participants in the caloric restriction group, reduced their calorie intake between 12 to 15 percent. Their physical activity did not change. Participants in the exercise group exercised six days a week for an hour each session walking, running, cycling or doing elliptical training. Their caloric intake did not change.