Drinking Too Much Water Hydration Research Paper

This is very true. Hydration is extremely important, given the conditions of what the convention will be like and the outside environment: Hot, humid, arid, and compact, so drink lots of water, right? Yes and no. Let me clarify.

Drinking too much water can do you more harm than good; if your body has too much water, your body will suffer from what's called water intoxication (hyponatremia). If you don't know what that is, it's when you've ingested too much water, and your sodium and potassium levels in your blood are abnormally low. Sodium and potassium are electrolytes, and they help regulate the amount of water that's in and around your cells; not only that, but both are vital for the brain to transmit action potential.

Your body maintains a balance of these electrolytes, otherwise your body wouldn't function. Yes, sweating is the loss of both water and salt; however, drinking enormous amounts of water dilutes the salt, and makes sweating irrelevant.

But what does this mean?

The amount of water that you need to drink per day is entirely dependent on what you are doing. For example, if you are going to be inside the convention centre all day (you're not outside for the entirety of the day [though I hope you do at some point XD]), chances are you won't need to drink that much water. At most, 2.5 litres is what you'll need to drink.

Now let's say you go outside every once and a while during the day. It's hot, humid, and sticky. You're out walking on the scorching asphalt with friends, having a good time. You're obviously going to be sweating more than those who are inside. You'll need to drink 4.5–6.5 litres of water. See the difference?

One last example:

if you're cosplaying in a fursuit, then you'll need to drink 10 litres of

water.

Point is, don't drink water for the sake of drinking water to always keep hydrated. You have to factor in what you will be doing. Incidentally, you know your body better than anyone else on the planet; as strange as that sounds, it's true.

In addition, pay attention to the colour of your urine (again, I know it's weird, but it is one of the best ways to tell if you need water or not); if it's dark yellow, chances are you need more fluids. If it's colourless (or clear), chances are you have enough water in your system.

I just thought I would point this out, because there is a lot of misconception with this sorta thing.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, I'll answer them!

P.S.

A lot of the food you eat also contains water. Think about that :stuck_out_tongue:

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