Why not to follow the idea of drinking 8 glasses of water a day?

Drinking plenty of water is good for health and we all know that it prevents many diseases and even cure them. Till we have been hearing that we should drink as much water as we can to attain good health but for the first time a research study has found that drinking too much water can also cause potentially fatal water intoxication.

This study has also found the mechanism which regulates the fluid intake by the human body in other words the mechanism which stops us to do over drinking. This study was led by researcher of Monash University in Australia which has given a new challenge to the popular concept of drinking minimum eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy.

Till we have heard about the above idea of drinking eight glasses of water a day but did know why only eight glasses and not nine or seven. This study has showed that a swallowing inhibition is activated by the brain after a person drink excess of liquid and helps in maintaining tightly calibrated volumes of water in the body.

Mr. Michael Farell, an associate professor at Monash said that if just follow and do what our body demands us to we will probably get right so drink according to thirst instead of following a schedule.

It is even true that whenever our body demands something we should fulfill it and do not over feed it when there is no need for anything.

The researchers asked the participants to rate drinking plenty of water is good for health and we all know that it prevents many diseases and even cure them. Till we have been hearing that we should drink as much water as we can to attain good health but for the first time a research study has found that drinking too much water can also cause potentially fatal water intoxication.

This study has also found the mechanism which regulates the fluid intake by the human body in other words the mechanism which stops us to do over drinking. This study was led by researcher of Monash University in Australia which has given a new challenge to the popular concept of drinking minimum eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy.

Till now we have heard about the above idea of drinking eight glasses of water a day but did know why only eight glasses and not nine or seven. This study has showed that a swallowing inhibition is activated by the brain after a person drink excess of liquid and helps in maintaining tightly calibrated volumes of water in the body.

Mr. Michael Farell, an associate professor at Monash said that if just follow and do what our body demands us to we will probably get right so drink according to thirst instead of following a schedule.

It is even true that whenever our body demands something we should fulfill it and do not over feed it when there is no need for anything.

The researchers asked the participants to rate the amount of effort required to swallow water under two conditions first is when they were thirsty and second is when they are persuaded to drink an excess amount of water.

And surprisingly the results showed three fold increases in effort after over- drinking.

Farell said “Here for the first time we found effort-full swallowing after drinking excess water which meant they had to overcome some sort of resistance. This was compatible with our notion that the swallowing reflex becomes inhibited once enough water has been drunk.”

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging for measuring the various activities in the brain, focusing on the brief period of just before swallowing and the results showed that the right pre-frontal areas of the brain were much more active at the time of swallowing with much effort, which suggests that the frontal cortex steps in to override the swallowing inhibition so drinking could occur according to the researcher’s instructions.

There are some instances where the athletes in marathons were told to drink water and died, in certain circumstances because of over drinking.

So over drinking of water puts our body in danger of intoxication or hyponatremia, when vital levels of sodium in the blood became abnormally low potentially causing symptoms ranging from lethargy and nausea to convulsions and coma.

Especially the elder people should take care of themselves and never over drink water also continuously keep check on their fluid intake.