The danger of drinking too much water

Drinking too much water can actually be deadly. This was the case for 36-year-old daycare worker, Ashley Summers, who died after drinking "four bottles of water in ... 20 minutes," while on a vacation with family, Summers' brother Devon Miller told WLFI News. This is due to a condition called water toxicity.

Water toxicity is when someone "drinks too much water too fast, throwing off the body's electrolyte balance and causing the body's sodium levels to drop rapidly," Insider wrote. The condition itself is uncommon and the amount required to reach this level varies by person. "If you have too much water, it's going to basically push that water into cells to kind of balance out that sodium and other electrolyte concentrations," Dr. Mahesh Polavarapu, medical director of the emergency department at New York-Presbyterian Westchester, told CBS News. "So as that happens, your brain cells and other cells in your body start to swell." 

Sodium maintains blood pressure and is necessary for healthy body functioning. A person is more at risk when drinking after heavy endurance exercise or if they have preexisting kidney problems. "If you drink too much pure water, the solutes in your body have to distribute into additional space and you can get electrolyte disturbances that cause major problems in the brain and you can get seizures," Dr. David Metz, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, told CBS News. 

However, "this is not something you should be worrying about," Polavarapu continued. If you are thirsty, you should drink enough to feel hydrated. "People think about thirst as the thing that drives them to drink water, thirst is almost a later sign of dehydration, so don't try to wait for that to happen."

If you do feel very thirsty, break up water intake with "drinks like Gatorade or snacks like fruits and vegetables to replenish electrolytes." per Insider.