Signs That Someone Is Drinking Too Much Water

You're Peeing Clear Urine

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We are all aware of the typical color of our own urine, and this is a great way to determine if we are drinking too much water. If your pee is clear more often than not, then it's a sure sign that you are drinking an excessive amount. It is okay for your urine to be clear on occasion however.

You Need To Pee Loads

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Toilet habits are obviously a good way to understand whether or not you are drinking enough water. You'll know roughly how often you need to urinate in a day so if you find yourself rushing to the bathroom to pee more then this could be a clear sign. An average person will need to urinate 6-7 times a day!

Drinking For No Reason

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Our bodies are incredibly smart, and they are able to do things without us consciously thinking about it. One of these things the body can do is tell us when we are dehydrated and make us aware we need more water. So maybe avoid drinking water all day, and just consume it when you're thirsty.

You Feel Like You're Going To Be Sick

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Overhydration is actually quite a problem for the body and it can lead to a number of consequences. One of which is that the kidneys can become overcome with water, so much so, it can't effectively remove the excess liquid. Therefore it has to come out one way or another so you might end up throwing up or...

You Get Diarrhea

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Yep, I did say it had to come out one way or the other! Unfortunately, excess water will clear out your body to the point where there is no room left. It will then be forced out of your body in any form necessary, meaning you might be in for an uncomfortable night in the bathroom!

You Have Headaches

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Headaches are actually a sign of both overhydration and dehydration! If there is excess water within the body, the body's salt levels can decrease and cells will swell. The cells in the brain can press against the skull causing you to possibly start suffering from a throbbing headache.

You're Struggling To Breathe

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Just as the cells in the brain can swell, so can the cells within the cardiovascular system. So instead of pressing against something like a skull, these cells can essentially narrow the air pathways within your body; this can cause you to find some discomfort when breathing, especially when you're out and about.

You Have Discoloured Hands Or Feet

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If you find your hands, feet or even lips are discoloured it could be a sign that you're actually overhydrated. When that the cells in our body swell, this can cause our outer skin layer to also swell. This swelling can cause the discolouration that might worry you!

You're Cramping Up

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When we drink too much water, making ourselves overhydrated, the electrolyte levels in our body can plummet. This is as a result of the balance in the body being shifted! Unfortunately, low electrolyte levels can result in the body cramping up and even suffering from muscle spasms.

You're More Tired Than Usual

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Becoming overhydrated can cause your kidneys to go into overload, working extra in order to try and get the water back out of your body. This then causes a reaction in your body that makes you feel extremely tired. Basically, your kidneys are tired and then so are you!

You're Feeling Stressed

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The same hormone reaction that causes your body to become exhausted as a result of the kidneys overworking can also make you feel stressed. This is unsurprising as you'll be able to feel your body working to fix itself, possibly stressing you out as a result of you being unable to do anything else.

You Feel Confused

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Just as you may get headaches as a result of swollen brain cells, the pressure of the swollen cells can also cause some disruption to the function of your brain! This is quite a rare occurrence but you could hypothetically suffer some brief lapses of confusion or memory loss!

Your Blood Pressure Increases

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As we mentioned before, you can begin to struggle breathing and this is because your blood pressure increases. This again down to the swollen cells in your body as a result of overhydration. You might be beginning to see a pattern as to how the problems here can begin to happen.

Your Heart Rate Lowers

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Lowering of your heart rate, also known as bradycardia can be extremely dangerous if not found and treated very quickly! Essentially the heart beat is slower than normal and it can lead to a loss of consciousness and in some very rare cases even death!

You Have A Pee-Filled Night

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If you're drinking a boat-load of water then you're most likely to suffer the most when you're trying to sleep. Night time incontinence can be one of the most infuriating things to have to go through, especially when you know you've got to get up early the next morning. Maybe try to avoid this!

You Might Feel Shaky

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Just as overhydration can cause muscle weakness and spasms, it can also cause you to feel weak in the muscles and so, making you feel shaky. This is because the sodium in your blood can become diluted. This can be a sign of general exhaustion so use some common sense in determining if its down to your water intake.

You Have Double Vision

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Finding yourself with double vision can be quite a scary scenario, and overhydration is one problem that can cause this! This is again down to the swelling of cells and this can cause you to feel stressed and potentially overwhelmed. You might be best having a lie down and chilling out if this happens!

Struggling To Identify Sensory Information

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Some cases of overhydration have shown the sufferers to struggle with identifying certain sensory information. This might be you're struggling to comprehend what it is you're seeing, smelling, hearing or even feeling. If this feeling persists for a prolonged period you should definitely get checked out.

Could You Have Schizophrenia?

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Compulsively drinking water is actually very common amongst sufferers of schizophrenia, although it can actually be a sign of numerous other personality disorders. I wouldn't be particularly too worried about this unless you are showing some of the other symptoms of schizophrenia.

Are You An Endurance Athlete?

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Overhydration, and the water intoxication that can be caused by this, is extremely common in endurance athletes. This is because an athlete drinks a load of water without accounting for their losses in electrolytes. The sodium levels can drop to extremely and dangerously low levels if not looked after correctly.

Are You In The Military?

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Another group of people who are often at risk of suffering from water intoxication are soldiers! This is because of the sheer amount of water they end up drinking during their brutal military training. Like the athletes they don't account for the lowered sodium levels and they can be extremely dangerous if not looked after.

You Lose Control Of Your Urination

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It is actually possible, if you drink water excessively for a long enough period, for your body to untrain itself in the skill of controlling your urination. This means that you might become unable to actually hold the urge to urinate; you might even pee yourself or even lose the sensation of feeling like you need the toilet.

You Experience Leakage

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Just as you can lose control of your urination, if you hold it for too long you're increasing your chances of urine leakage. Typically a bladder can hold 30oz of urine before it has to be released but this can be dangerous. If you hold it for this long you can leak bladder both inside and outside of your body.

You Have A Seizure

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Although this a rare side effect of overhydration, it doesn't mean its impossible, and its probably one of the more terrifying possibilities that overhydration can pose. They are essentially extreme muscle spasms, contracting to the point where you lose control of your entire body.

Take Diuretics To Increase Your Urine Flow

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Now we're looking at ways to prevent the effects of overhydration; and one of the more popular treatments is by taking diuretics. These are water pills that increase urine removal from the kidneys, they also promote the removal of all that dangerous sodium that can cause so many issues in your body.

Limit The Amount Of Water You're Drinking

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As we discussed before, endurance athletes are most at risk of overhydration. Therefore it might be best to limit how much water you're drinking before and after your race (or at home if you're a big water drinker). The recommended water amount to consume is around 14-22 fluid ounces in the 3 hours before exercise.

Weigh Yourself Before A Race

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One of the best ways an endurance athlete can prevent overhydration is by weighing themselves immediately before and immediately after a race. This is to determine how much water weight they have lost during the race, through sweat or saliva! They then know how much they need to replenish with.

Use Sports Beverages

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Although water can be extremely refreshing, especially when you're working out or taking part in any form of sports, it doesn't offer you electrolytes or sugars that are essential. Instead, replace your water with a Gatorade, which does contain the electrolytes, sugars and even potassium.

Replenish Your Sodium Levels

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If you are overhydrated, and your sodium levels are lowered then one way you can help yourself is by simply eating some food. You want to eat a meal with a decent amount of sodium and then allow yourself to rest whilst its being digested. You wouldn't want to eat and then get back out there anyway!

Be Careful With Other Medications

If you are taking any pain medications or antidepressants, you might be at higher risk of overhydration. In fact, some of these pills can actually cause you to feel thirsty even though you're already hydrated enough. Maybe discuss with your prescribing doctor whether or not you should avoid consuming a lot of water.

What Are The Signs You're NOT Drinking Enough Water? You're Really Hungry

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Have you noticed you're so much more hungry these days? You might have thought you had a problem with your diet, and it makes sense why you wouldn't think it had anything to do with what you're drinking. But when you're not having enough water, your body can react with hunger pangs.

And You're Always Thirsty

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This one is a little more obvious, but it could step up a notch to extreme thirst. Are you still thirsty even after you've downed a huge bottle of something? This is your body telling you that you've been depriving it of water for too long and it's going to take more than a sip to get it back up to speed!

You Have Bad Breath!

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When you're hydrated, the saliva in your mouth is working as it should to wet the inside of your mouth and wash away all the bacteria there. When you're not drinking enough water, your saliva isn't doing it job properly - which means all that bacteria left behind results in bad breath!

Your Urine Is Super Dark

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We know your urine can be a huge indicator of your water intake, like how we said super clear urine means you're drinking far too much! So if you're urine is anything darker than a pale yellow color - and especially if it's very, very dark - it's time to fill up that water bottle!

You Crave Sugar - All The Time!

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For the same reason that you find yourself more hungry when you're dehydrated, you'll also find you have more cravings for sugary treats and chocolate. Your body is struggling to turn glucose in your body into energy when you're dehydrated, so it results in being more hungry as well as specifically hungry for sugar!

You've Put On Weight

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And what happens when you're eating more, and especially piling in the junk food and sugary treats? You put on weight! If you're finding you're putting on weight because of your increase in hunger, it could all stem from being too dehydrated. Not only that, but drinking less water can mess with your metabolic rate, which can also result in weight gain.

Your Skin Could Use A Glow Up

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We know that drinking enough water has positive effects on your body, and this includes the skin. Your skin needs hydrating, too, so a telltale sign can be if your skin is looking very dull and very dry. You might also have more breakouts because you're eating more unhealthily if you have those sugar cravings!

You're Struggling With Your Digestion

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Water is crucial for a smooth-flowing digestive system, so when this is compromised by lack of water, it could result in digestive problems like too much gas, feeling bloated or experiencing heartburn. It may also be if you're more hungry, you're stuffing food in making you feel more uncomfortable!

As Well As Constipation

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And these issues in your digestion system can result in problems at the end of it all, too - namely, constipation! Because everything is running less-than-smoothly it could result in a clog in your bowels and having difficulty with regular bowel movements. You'll likely go to the bathroom less when dehydrated, but find problems shifting everything when you do try to go!

You Have Dry Mouth

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We mentioned about the issues with bad breath and saliva, and this can also turn to dry mouth if you're lacking on the water side of things. We all know that feeling after a boozy night out when we wake up with a dry mouth - well this is a telltale sign of dehydration!

And Your Lips Are Chapped

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Dry mouth doesn't just affect the inside of your mouth, and your tongue, either - it can also result in dry and cracked lips. When you're not drinking water, your lips may become sore, chapped and start easily bleeding if you're trying to talk or eat. Water can fix all that!

You Have Very Dry Eyes

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Your eyes need to stay moisturized at all times, which is why blinking is so important! When you're dehydrated, you risk the tear ducts in your eyes actually drying up, which can result in sore and painful eyes because your eyes can't keep themselves moist.

And You're Getting A Lot Of Muscle Cramps

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The body sweats to cool itself down, and when you're dehydrated, the body can't do that - this can actually result in your muscles cramping up and feeling painful. When your body can't produce anymore sweat through lack of water, your muscles are going to ache for it.

Your Joints Ache, Too

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And it doesn't just affect your muscles, either - you're likely to get joint aches and pains, too! This is because the cartilage which works to surround and protect the joints is made up of around 80% water - so if you're not drinking enough, cartilage can weaken and result in joints rubbing against each other.

Your Blood Pressure Is High

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While your blood pressure can be high if you're drinking far too much water, it can also be high if you're not drinking nearly enough. When you're dehydrated, the water content in your blood is less, making the blood thicker and harder to pump around the body, resulting in high blood pressure.

You Feel Sick And Dizzy

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This can be the difference between mild and serious dehydration. Mild dehydration can increase blood pressure, as mentioned, but with serious dehydration, your blood pressure can actually drop and result in your brain feeling foggy and you feeling dizzy and more sick.

You're Always One Step Away From Falling Asleep!

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Feeling tired all the time is never a good sign for your general health, and in the case of lack of water, dehydration can cause extreme tiredness because your body doesn't have the right amount of water for everyday bodily functions - so it will try to preserve energy, resulting in you feeling tired.

You're Getting Headaches

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Headaches can be a key sign that you're lacking on water, as you can feel sluggish with a pounding head. Dehydration can lead to the issues with blood and blood pressure that we mentioned, with your blood being thicker and harder to circulate, resulting in nasty headache from your brain not getting enough oxygen.

Your Energy Is At An All Time Low

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You might find that you have lower energy levels, especially when it comes to exercise and muscle movement, when you're lacking water. This is because your muscles will easily tire and sore quickly because they're not hydrated. As well as that, your body temperature will cause havoc.

You Have Body Odor

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It's completely normal to have body odor when you sweat, even if you use deodorant, because it's a natural thing even when you're drinking enough water. But when you're dehydrated, the body needs to flush out more toxins through the sweat, which then reacts to the normal bacteria and causes a worse smell!