HAVE you ever heard of water intoxication?
Hold your excitement. This is not a discovery that would ease your craving for alcoholic drinks and think that water can be an alternative.
Of course, water is always an alternative or shall we say, the best option when it comes to drinks but water intoxication or hyponatremia is a condition caused by overdrinking water, causing nausea and vomiting, headache, confusion, loss of energy, drowsiness and fatigue, restlessness and irritability, muscle weakness, spasms or cramps, seizures and even coma.
If you are into serious exercise, you may have known already that the body needs electrolyte minerals to burn in exercises and for recovery of the burned minerals from the body. Water intoxication occurs when the concentration of sodium in your blood is abnormally low.
Sodium is an electrolyte and helps regulate the amount of water that's in and around your cells. Drinking too much water causes sodium to be diluted, causing an imbalance in the body and body cells to swell that could cause greater health problems.
This is the reason why drinking water before training or exercise must be in moderation and at least thirty minutes before any exercise, training or workout, or an hour or two before an intense workout. The purpose of preventing dehydration may cause water intoxication if we are not careful to understand that too much of a good thing may also cause problems.
In order to get the best result from your exercise, training or workout, stay hydrated and follow the proper fluid intake for a person every day. In cases of preparing for your workout, intake water one to two hours before an intensity training or at least thirty minutes for low-intensity workouts.
We should always remember that hydration could happen before, during and after a workout, in some cases, it is only before and after. Hence, there is no reason for drinking too much than recommended.