Dear Dr. Fritz,
Call me Joe. I have heard that drinking a lot of water can kill coronavirus, or drinking water every 15 minutes. Is this true? Thanks and more power.
Joe of Panabo City
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Dear Joe of Panabo City,
I have heard a lot about this stuff circulating over social media and even from people I meet. But, I am sorry to tell you that what you have heard is not true at all. It is true that drinking water is really very healthy, but drinking water frequently is not effective to help you specifically against Covid-19.
Drinking every 15 minutes would not wash any virus down your esophagus so it can’t get into your lungs. Remember that when we are exposed to the virus, there are at least thousands of them that get to you. Thus, it is very unlikely that you would be able to wash down all that virus in your throat and then into your stomach.
It is through the respiratory droplets in the air, that these viruses are transmitted and they go directly into the respiratory system. The most possible is that some of these viruses would have already made its way into your nose before you have started drinking water. Moreover, we often infect ourselves by touching our nose or our faces, which allows the virus to immediately get into our respiratory tract.
It doesn’t harm anyway, if you drink a lot of water, as long as you don’t have to limit your water intake due to some conditions, like renal failure.
Good luck and keep safe!
Dr. Fritz
(Dr. Fritz Legarde Espedilla is an aesthetic dermatologist and surgeon and a clinical sexologist. She is also trained in hypnotherapy and Medical Acupuncture. She is the anchor of Secrets of Dr. Fritz, of Hugyaw.com. She has been in the broadcast media for more than a decade and has written a book based on her 15-year stint with her radio program, “Healthy is Sexy Secrets ni Dr. Fritz.”. For your questions, you may e-mail them to dokfritz@yahoo.com. If you don’t wish your letter to be published, we regret that we can not answer them. Thank you for your understanding.)