04.14.2005:Too Much Water Kills Runners Causing Hyponatremia
Thursday, April 14, 2005 at 17:50 And how did doctors miss this one:
From SFGate.com:
After years of telling athletes to drink as much liquid as possible to avoid dehydration, some doctors are now saying that drinking too much during intense exercise poses a far greater health risk.
An increasing number of athletes -- marathon runners, triathletes and even hikers -- are severely diluting their blood by drinking too much water or too many sports drinks, with some falling gravely ill and even dying, the doctors say.
New research on runners in the Boston Marathon confirms the problem and shows just how serious it is.
The research, reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine, involved 488 runners who participated in the 2002 marathon. The runners gave blood samples before and after the race. While most were fine, 13 percent -- or 62 of them -- drank so much that they had hyponatremia, or abnormally low blood sodium levels. Three had levels so low that they were in danger of dying.
