# Drinking water and it's possible effect on the psyche



## Astro Pen (Jul 23, 2021)

I have started drinking lots of water like 2 litres a day. (Basically because the cool water calms a tooth that has yet to find an nhs dentist without a 6 month waiting list.)
However something I subliminally registered was that, in school, the hyper sporty kids and 'bully' types were always drinking water or pop and making a macho thing of holding the bottle up and glugging it down, preferably burping afterwards for added effect.
Meanwhile the bookish types, like myself, didn't carry drinks and tended, in all probability toward permanent dehydration.
Anyone else notice this?
If I find I am pulling a rehydrated Jekyll and Hyde I'll let you know


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## Danny McG (Jul 23, 2021)

It's common nowadays to see people everywhere carrying water bottles, it wasn't a thing even thirty years ago.

"What? Buy water? The stuff we get free out of the tap?"


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## M. Robert Gibson (Jul 23, 2021)

Astro Pen said:


> the hyper sporty kids and 'bully' types were always drinking water or pop and making a macho thing of holding the bottle up and glugging it down, preferably burping afterwards for added effect.


I suspect it's one of those 'be part of the crowd' phenomenon. 
"Hey look, all the hard kids are glugging.  Well I want everyone to think I'm a hard kid, so I'd better get glugging"

Whereas us bookish types are far too intelligent to resort to such cheap camouflage techniques, preferring instead to skulk in libraries and museums


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## .matthew. (Jul 23, 2021)

Astro Pen said:


> (Basically because the cool water calms a tooth that has yet to find an nhs dentist without a 6 month waiting list.)


I would have had this problem, but I blew the issue way out of proportion and got on with an NHS dentist the same week (who had said they weren't taking patients twice already).

The key here is to act un-British, to unbottle your frustrations, and just go full-on OWWWWWWWWW until they agree to see you...


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## Don (Jul 23, 2021)

As a bookish type, caffeine's my thing for bicycle spins up the mountain:





						"Spin Tale Revealed" by Don Kuenz
					

Spin Tale Revealed



					crcomp.net
				



(But don't tell my Doc buddies the bicycle bottles are full of caffeine instead of water. )


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## Foxbat (Jul 24, 2021)

I learned my lesson in the nuclear industry. Once you’ve spent a few hours working in respirators or breathing apparatus, you quickly learn the benefits of downing a litre of water before you start. Dehydration can give you thumping headaches. I always keep myself hydrated these days. I keep a bottle of water (from the tap) in the fridge at all times. And yes, it does soothe a tooth for a little while.  Have you tried oil of cloves?


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## Montero (Jul 24, 2021)

But be careful not to overdo it - you can make yourself ill or even kill yourself. If you are sodium deficient then your brain can swell up.









						When You Drink Too Much Water—The Perils of Overhydration
					

Although dehydration is a serious health issue, overhydration can also cause issues. Here's what it does and what you can do to avoid it.




					www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com


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## JunkMonkey (Jul 24, 2021)

I understand that lack of hydration is a root cause of a lot of over-eating too.  The brain misinterprets dehydration for hunger and will make you think you need something to eat when all you really need is something to drink.


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## Montero (Jul 24, 2021)

Yeah, I'd heard that in the context of diets.


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## Mon0Zer0 (Jul 25, 2021)

Montero said:


> But be careful not to overdo it - you can make yourself ill or even kill yourself. If you are sodium deficient then your brain can swell up.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



You have to drink an awful lot and not pee. My ex-fiancee did exactly this after being spiked with 1/2 an ecstasy tablet. She collapsed in a nightclub after drinking too much water and was in a coma for a week. The damage affected her mentally in terms of inability to regulate emotion and depression for a few years after, but she has, thankfully, subsequently fully recovered.



Astro Pen said:


> in school, the hyper sporty kids and 'bully' types were always drinking water or pop and making a macho thing of holding the bottle up and glugging it down, preferably burping afterwards for added effect.
> Meanwhile the bookish types, like myself, didn't carry drinks and tended, in all probability toward permanent dehydration.
> Anyone else notice this?



It wasn't something that our sporty bullies did, or not that I registered. 

I'm diabetic, so even before being diagnosed I've always had a terrible thirst.


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## Montero (Jul 25, 2021)

Glad to hear your fiancee recovered eventually.

Regarding the terrible thirst what can help a little, if it includes dry mouth, is a saliva replacement gel - Oralieve is one company that makes them. Can take the edge off a bit.

From memory, I think the overhydration thing was initially noticed in those big public marathons and fun runs with the hydration stations - people did dedicated water drinking because they thought it was good for them.


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## Ursa major (Jul 25, 2021)

Foxbat said:


> Dehydration can give you thumping headaches.


For headaches, I usually try drinking water first before resorting to a pill.

Most times this works, with the added benefit that, if dehydration _has_ been causing the headache, it may be producing other, not (yet) noticed, adverse effects, ones that taking a pill won't help with... unless you happen to use a _lot_ of water to aid in the swallowing of the pill....


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## Danny McG (Jul 25, 2021)

Dangerous stuff is water, especially when it freezes

Titanic


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## Ursa major (Jul 25, 2021)

Oxygen dihydride and Hydrogen monoxide: two of the most dangerous compounds known to man.


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## Dave (Jul 25, 2021)

Ursa major said:


> Oxygen dihydride and Hydrogen monoxide: two of the most dangerous compounds known to man.


The thread title had already reminded me of the Dihydrogen monoxide parody that was going around the internet a few years ago...



> Dihydrogen monoxide:
> 
> is also known as hydroxyl acid, and is the major component of acid rain.
> contributes to the "greenhouse effect".
> ...



Not only that, but it can cause death by suffocation!


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## hitmouse (Jul 25, 2021)

Mon0Zer0 said:


> You have to drink an awful lot and not pee.


That is quite difficult, since the bladder will fill up. Significant dilution of blood sodium levels is possible but _very_ difficult with excess water consumption (talking really heroic quantities e.g. 8-10 litres plus per day) and is mainly because the ability to concentrate urine by the renal nephron can be temporarily affected by the abnormal filtration requirements. In that situation there is lots of urine produced, with concommitent sodium loss.

Low serum sodium has lots of causes, and the physiology of sodium regulation is quite complicated. It is seen in people with heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver, which can lead to a metabolic problem known as Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuretic Hormone secretion (SIADH) where despite normal fluid intake, the water is inappropriately retained, causing a number of problems including hyponatraemia. The other major cause of low sodium is in patients with severe kidney failure where sufficient urine is simply not produced, and everything gets diluted as water is drunk. It is also sometimes seen in chronic alcoholics.

Healthy kidneys are astonishingly capable of regulating fluid balance, sodium and potassium levels.


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## Wayne Mack (Jul 25, 2021)

Danny McG said:


> Dangerous stuff is water, especially when it freezes
> 
> Titanic


But wasn't it the _unfrozen_ water that caused all the problems?


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## hitmouse (Jul 25, 2021)

Wayne Mack said:


> But wasn't it the _unfrozen_ water that caused all the problems?


A friend of mine was in a lakeside sauna in Norway in midwinter. When he reached his limit in the sauna he ran out the door and jumped off the end of the dock into the lake. Which was frozen. He discovered that he had cooled down, but concluded that unfrozen water might not cause the same amount of pain.


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