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CNN Live At Daybreak

Drinking Too Many Fluids Can be Dangerous

Aired July 18, 2003 - 06:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I know a lot of you are on the treadmill this morning. Well, whether you jog to stay in shape or you're a hard core marathon runner, listen to this. There is a new health warning this morning -- drinking too many fluids can be just as dangerous as not drinking enough. You're confused, aren't you?
Dr. Sandra Fryhofer is here to -- it's just confusing. You just don't know what to do.

DR. SANDRA FRYHOFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is confusing. But there's a new report in the "British Medical Journal" that talks, you know, that talks about dehydration and actually now it's saying that too much -- drinking too much water can actually cause, or over hydrating can actually be just as bad as not drinking enough. So de -- so it can actually be worse than dehydration and the heat associated illnesses. And that's because drinking too much fluid can actually cause a potentially fatal condition called hyponatremia. And this occurs when salt levels in the blood drop to dangerously low levels.

The symptoms initially include nausea, vomiting, weakness, confusion. And this can quickly lead to swelling of the brain. This is something called hyponatremic encephalopathy and can result in seizures, coma, even death. There have been more than 250 cases reported in the medical literature, including at least seven deaths.

And this actually happened to one of the doctors in my call group. He went to Chicago to run in a 50 mile race. It was an unusually hot October day and they kept telling everyone to drink, drink, drink. Well, he did exactly what they said and by the end of the race, he was sick, he was disoriented, he had to be hospitalized.

Now, fortunately he lived to tell the story and, in fact, his case was written up in the "Journal of the American Medical Association." And believe it or not, it wasn't until the late 1960s that we changed, we started telling people to drink. Before this time, we actually, athletes were told not to drink during exercise because it was thought that drinking fluids actually interfered with athletic performance. So it wasn't until 1969 that there was this major shift toward recommending that athletes drink as much as they can.

COSTELLO: OK, as a runner, I have so many questions. Who is most at risk for drinking too much water and getting sick?

FRYHOFER: Well, military personnel and female marathon runners. They seem to be at greatest risk. And you might remember in the 2002 Boston Marathon, there was actually a woman who died from this.

COSTELLO: You're kidding? So how do you know how much water you should drink?

FRYHOFER: Well, this study really helps with that. In fact, this, Dr. Timothy Noakes, who wrote this report, is a leading expert in sports medicine. He's known all around the world. And he says no more than 400 to 800 CCs per hour, which is about 12 to 24 ounces. So that's going to be about two to three of these little bottles.

COSTELLO: That's it?

FRYHOFER: And only drink if you're thirsty. So the best advice, listen to your body. The USA Track and Field Society has been listening to these reports and earlier this year they announced a major change in their hydration recommendations and simply put that -- what they're saying is that runners should be sensitive to the onset of thirst as the signal to drink rather than trying to stay ahead of thirst.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, that's hard to do when you're running, especially if you're running a long distance, because sometimes you're just not paying attention.

FRYHOFER: Well, the other thing Dr. Noakes says is you're really not going to be able to drink too much unless you're doing more than four hours of running or four hours of strenuous exercise. So hydration is still important.

And Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to talk more about hydration on AMERICAN MORNING.

COSTELLO: Yes, because I've been dehydrated and I've passed out.

FRYHOFER: Well, listen to that. Well, listen to him talk about that.

COSTELLO: All right, I will.

Thank you very much, Dr. Fryhofer.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired July 18, 2003 - 06:52   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I know a lot of you are on the treadmill this morning. Well, whether you jog to stay in shape or you're a hard core marathon runner, listen to this. There is a new health warning this morning -- drinking too many fluids can be just as dangerous as not drinking enough. You're confused, aren't you?
Dr. Sandra Fryhofer is here to -- it's just confusing. You just don't know what to do.

DR. SANDRA FRYHOFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is confusing. But there's a new report in the "British Medical Journal" that talks, you know, that talks about dehydration and actually now it's saying that too much -- drinking too much water can actually cause, or over hydrating can actually be just as bad as not drinking enough. So de -- so it can actually be worse than dehydration and the heat associated illnesses. And that's because drinking too much fluid can actually cause a potentially fatal condition called hyponatremia. And this occurs when salt levels in the blood drop to dangerously low levels.

The symptoms initially include nausea, vomiting, weakness, confusion. And this can quickly lead to swelling of the brain. This is something called hyponatremic encephalopathy and can result in seizures, coma, even death. There have been more than 250 cases reported in the medical literature, including at least seven deaths.

And this actually happened to one of the doctors in my call group. He went to Chicago to run in a 50 mile race. It was an unusually hot October day and they kept telling everyone to drink, drink, drink. Well, he did exactly what they said and by the end of the race, he was sick, he was disoriented, he had to be hospitalized.

Now, fortunately he lived to tell the story and, in fact, his case was written up in the "Journal of the American Medical Association." And believe it or not, it wasn't until the late 1960s that we changed, we started telling people to drink. Before this time, we actually, athletes were told not to drink during exercise because it was thought that drinking fluids actually interfered with athletic performance. So it wasn't until 1969 that there was this major shift toward recommending that athletes drink as much as they can.

COSTELLO: OK, as a runner, I have so many questions. Who is most at risk for drinking too much water and getting sick?

FRYHOFER: Well, military personnel and female marathon runners. They seem to be at greatest risk. And you might remember in the 2002 Boston Marathon, there was actually a woman who died from this.

COSTELLO: You're kidding? So how do you know how much water you should drink?

FRYHOFER: Well, this study really helps with that. In fact, this, Dr. Timothy Noakes, who wrote this report, is a leading expert in sports medicine. He's known all around the world. And he says no more than 400 to 800 CCs per hour, which is about 12 to 24 ounces. So that's going to be about two to three of these little bottles.

COSTELLO: That's it?

FRYHOFER: And only drink if you're thirsty. So the best advice, listen to your body. The USA Track and Field Society has been listening to these reports and earlier this year they announced a major change in their hydration recommendations and simply put that -- what they're saying is that runners should be sensitive to the onset of thirst as the signal to drink rather than trying to stay ahead of thirst.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, that's hard to do when you're running, especially if you're running a long distance, because sometimes you're just not paying attention.

FRYHOFER: Well, the other thing Dr. Noakes says is you're really not going to be able to drink too much unless you're doing more than four hours of running or four hours of strenuous exercise. So hydration is still important.

And Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to talk more about hydration on AMERICAN MORNING.

COSTELLO: Yes, because I've been dehydrated and I've passed out.

FRYHOFER: Well, listen to that. Well, listen to him talk about that.

COSTELLO: All right, I will.

Thank you very much, Dr. Fryhofer.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com