Can you drink too much water?

Health experts have been telling us for years to drink more water but how much is too much? Dawn Page, a healthy 42-year old living in the UK wanted to lose some weight. She went to a nutritionist and started on a detox diet which involved cutting down on her salt intake and drinking 6 pints of water a day. After seven days she collapsed and had an epileptic fit which left her brain damaged. Now she can't speak properly and her memory has gone.

Then there was the physically active footballer Andrew Thornton, a 44 year old who fell into a coma and died from swelling of the brain. He drank 17 pints of cold water and after excessive vomitting, he collapsed and died of a heart attack triggered by over-consumption of water.

Young people at Rave parties who take Ecstacy get desperately thirsty and have died from drinking too much water. In 2007, 22 year old fitness instructor David Rogers died after his first London marathon from being over anxious to re-hydrate. Actor Anthony Andrews collapsed after a West End performance in 2003 after drinking 17 pints of water but recovered in hospital. Artist Andy Warhol died when only 58 in 1987 when a New York hospital gave him too much fluid which led to water intoxication.

Water overdose or hyponatremia is when too much water comsumption dilutes vital salts and minerals in the body. Cells and organs swell up which increases pressure in the brain and the body can shut down. Because the brain in confined inside the skull, it hasn't any room to expand and once it's enlarged by 6%, it hits bone and starts to compress against the skull which results in convulsions, coma, brain damage and death.

So be very careful when you re-hydrate after exercise and avoid detox diets that involve drinking lots of water and eating only fruits and vegetables with minimal salt - it's a recipe for disaster. And check the colour of your urine, if you are drinking too little, it will be dark but if its the colour of pale straw, it's just right.