Can drinking too much water harm your kidneys?

All activities of the human body are inseparable from water. Water is the carrier of nutrients and the main participant in human metabolism, so it is very important to the human body. Make sure you drink enough water every day. Drinking water is something people do every day. Drinking water is not just for quenching thirst, it is a science, so drinking water correctly will be beneficial to the human body. Drinking too much water doesn’t seem to be a good thing. So, is drinking too much water harmful to the kidneys?

For normal people, drinking and excretion of water are in a balanced state every day. The kidney is the most important organ regulating water metabolism. It has the function of concentrating and diluting urine, maintaining the specific gravity of urine between 1002-1030. Drinking more water will make the urine thinner and the specific gravity lower, and the urine volume will increase. Drinking less water will make the specific gravity higher and the urine thicker, and the urine volume will decrease. Normal urine output is about 1500 ml per day, which is about the same as the amount of water you drink.

The kidney's function of concentrating and diluting urine is controlled and regulated by antidiuretic hormone, osmotic pressure, etc. in the body. It also has a thirst center, and people will drink more water when they feel thirsty. To give an extreme example, there is a disease called primary diabetes insipidus. Due to insufficient secretion of antidiuretic hormone, people always feel thirsty, drink water and urinate constantly, and the daily urine volume reaches tens of thousands of milliliters, but it does not cause kidney damage. It can be seen that simply drinking more water will not increase the burden on the kidneys, and you will not drink a lot of water without feeling thirsty. However, if the daily urine volume is always more than 2500 ml, and you feel thirsty and drink a lot of water for at least 3 consecutive days, you should pay attention and it is worth checking the urine specific gravity and other further tests. I guess drinking too much will increase the pressure on your bladder. Don't be extreme in doing anything. If you are asked to drink more water, just drink it at any time. Others drink 2L of water regularly every day. First of all, only drinking water effectively can allow the body to absorb it effectively.

Everything is excessive, and drinking more water is good, but there must be a limit, mainly to meet the needs of your own body. Drinking too much water beyond the body's capacity will not only increase the burden on the kidneys and urinary system, but also the cardiovascular system. This is because cells can only metabolize normally when various indicators in human body fluids are balanced, but if there is too much water in the body fluids, the cells will not be able to metabolize normally (to give a simple analogy, when the plane is on the ground, the air pressure inside and outside the plane is the same, and people can enter and exit normally, but when it is high in the sky, the air pressure difference is too great, and if the door is opened, the people in the plane will be involuntarily sucked out of the plane).

There have been reports in the past of people suffering from heart attacks and sudden deaths due to drinking too much water. However, these are individual phenomena caused by drinking too much water. The key to drinking water is not to wait until you are thirsty. If you drink then, your body will already be in a state of mild dehydration. Drinking water at the right time and in the right amount is very helpful to the body. Many people only think of drinking water when they are thirsty, and they often swallow it in big gulps. This is also wrong. Drinking water too fast and too quickly will cause you to swallow a lot of air invisibly, which can easily cause hiccups or bloating. Therefore, it is best to hold the water in your mouth first and then drink it slowly. Especially for people with weak stomachs, they should drink water slowly, one sip at a time.

The best time to drink water is between every two meals, and it is best to drink a glass of water every hour every day. You can judge whether you are dehydrated based on the color of your urine. Generally speaking, if the urine is a very light yellow color, it means that you have drunk enough water or drank too much. If it is dark yellow, it means that you need to replenish some water.