Water pouring into glass.
(Image credit: pinkomelet / Getty Images)

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."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Devika Rao, The Week US

 Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.