Drinking water is good for your health ... ya maybe

Everytime someone around me says, "If you eat too much of [insert something edible/medicine etc], you will suffer from [insert condition name]", I will point out that anything taken excessively will result in problems. 病从口入吗。This includes drinking water, H₂O.

Then I will get strange stares from making this statement. Hmm ? Drinking too much water is dangerous ? Oh yes it is. There is actually a condition call water intoxication aka water poisoning and hyper hydration.Basically, it induces a condition call hyponatremia, which in simple terms means low salt content in your blood. Strange as it sounds, not only drinking large amount of water is stupid, it is very deadly. And we thought over drinking (of alcohol) kills, hehee.

Apparently, drinking too much water over a short period of time when deplete the sodium in our body and cause cells to explode during to extreme osmotic pressure. And guess what, drinking 1.5 to 3 litres of water at one go is sufficient to cause problems from this condition.

Matthew Carrington, died taking part of dumb initiation ritual at Chi Tau fraternity.
There was also a case which i can't find a link to where a mom fed her baby too much water on purpose to kill her baby.

This reflects on the water torture aka water treatment used by the Japanese during World War II to force confessions and information from their prisioners. When I read about that in the history text books, I have only thought that it could caused serious discomfort and death by suffocation. Maybe death by unclean water as well, but now, I can add water intoxication to the list.

Enterprising murderers can always force their victim to drink loads of water, in agony of course, literally to their death. Once the victim falls into a coma from the water overdose, the stomach will continue to absorb more water until fatality occurs.

That's evil...hehee. Hmm...this blog is getting naughty and evil by the day.

Chiong ah ! Must drink more water ! You wanna get air-lifted and showered with ice cold water bor ?

This rises another sore issue that many males in Singapore are familiar with. Water parades in the SAF. For those fortunate enough to be oblivious to this term, it is an important thing to do, especially before rigorous physical activites. The name came from the fact that a group of soldiers have to drink 0.5 litres to 1 litres of water at one go. While without a doubt, it saved plenty of lives from dehydration, I cannot determine if the instructors knew that drinking too much at one go is dangerous too. Although unlikely, it might be a good idea to space out the water parades at 0.5 litres per session in-between breaks in training. I heard of water parades that goes at 1 litre per session. Woah... will that leads to water intoxication someday ?

Looks familiar guys ?

During my BMT (Basic Military Training), we had to drink 0.5 litres of water during the morning parade before breakfast. Typically we consume another mug of water / milo / kopi / tea / syrup during breakfast. If physical training is scheduled right after breakfast, we have to down another canteen of water to prevent dehydration. That's 1.3 litres of water in roughly an hour. Pretty too close to the 1.5 litres to 3 litres limit for comfort. This also caused some people to vomit and have nightmares about every inevitable water parades that comes along. I am not saying water parades are bad but let's space them up a little.

Some folks decided to "chao keng" and dump the water away despite heavy penalties for not drinking and for those who simply can't do the latter have to resort to mixing instant drinks which are almost transparent to make the water tastier to drink. Instant 100 plus makes a good drink, and it mixes quite quickly.

Hey can this be made a compulsory issue ?

That's all for now folks.