As toxicologists are wont to say, it's not the substance that kills, but the dosage. Yeah, even plain old water can kill. The latest episode is a really sad one - the senseless death of a young mother who entered a radio-station promotion trying to win a Nintendo Wii game console for her children.
The folks at KDND-FM in Sacramento staged a promotional event where contestants were given 8-ounce bottles of water (Oh my God - bottled water is the culprit!) to drink every 10 minutes. The person who could do this the longest without going to the bathroom won the Wii. Jennifer Strange came in second, and a few hours later she was dead of water intoxication. A UC-Davis physician interviewed on KCAL (Los Angeles) said the excessive water causes the brain and other organs to swell, and the expanding brain, confined by the rigid skull, can cause death.
The contestants were allegedly not informed that drinking too much water without urinating could be hazardous.
See the KCAL story at http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_015200726.html, originally reported by the Associated Press.
"When water chokes you, what are you to drink to wash it down?" -- Aristotle
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