Water can kill you??

How can someone
... die from drinking
too much water?

In January 2007, hours after
competing in a radio station contest to win a Nintendo Wii , 28-year-old Jennifer Strange
was found dead in her
California home. The station's
"Hold Your Wee for a Wii"
challenge awarded the game
system to the contestant who could drink the most water
without having to take a trip
to the bathroom. According
to preliminary autopsy reports, Ms. Strange
apparently died from drinking
too much water too quickly,
resulting in a condition called water intoxication .

At its most basic, water
intoxication occurs when a
person drinks so much water
that the other nutrients in the
body become diluted to the
point that they can no longer do their jobs. You've probably
heard the term electrolyte before, whether in reference
to sports drinks (which
provide electrolytes in
addition to fluids) or to certain
conditions, such as bulimia or
diarrhea, that cause dangerous "electrolyte imbalances" in the
body. Electrolytes are simply
salt ions (atoms with an overall positive or negative
charge) that cells use to move fluids and nerve messages into
and out of cells and
throughout the body.
Without electrolytes, the
body can't function.

In cases of water intoxication,
it is extreme hyponatremia
that can ultimately cause coma and death