
Science of Survival: Drinking Yourself to Death
Outside Podcast
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How to Protect Yourself From Hyponatremia
hyponatremia is so counterintuitive that the very first case to be published in a medical journal was criticized and debated for decades. It occurred in Durban, South Africa in 1981 A woman named Eleanor Sadler drank too much water, passed out, and woke up four days later asking what happened. The body does not have enough sodium, it triggers the release of an anti-diuretic hormone Forcing the body to retain what little sodium it has left But since negatively charged water follows positively charged sodium, the body retains the extra fluid as well So the more water you drink, the worse it gets.
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