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drinking too much water

Wed, 06/22/2011 - 20:06
Has anyone ever been told their medication level is being affected because they are drinking too much water?

Comments

Re: drinking too much water

Submitted by phylisfjohnson on Sat, 2011-06-25 - 12:38

Some say that drinking too much water can throw your electrolytes out of balance and dilute your meds.

But a doctor -- who's studying to be a neurologist -- on the forum "Coping with Epilepsy" says:

"Ok....you cannot "flush" stuff out of your body just by drinking water (unless you plan on drinking ridiculously large amounts of water, say 7-8 liters and even then you would be peeing away to compensate). Most anti-epileptic drugs are metabolized in the liver, a few in the kidney and a few in plasma. in any case, it won't alter your metabolism significantly.

I've never heard of anyone getting a seizure from low drug levels because they drank too much water.Your kidneys are the ultimate balancing act. If you drink more than you need , you pee more dilute urine. if you driink less you pee concentrated urine.

Only at extremes will your drug levels be affected...and in which case, you have way more to worry about than blood levels. The variables you mention do vary, but in inverse proportions and relatively independent of water intake. the concentration of urine relies more on sodium and water balance than anything else. Compared to the regular, everyday crap your kidneys filter out everyday, the drugs are a piece of cake."

Phylis Feiner Johnson     www.epilepsytalk.com

Some say that drinking too much water can throw your electrolytes out of balance and dilute your meds.

But a doctor -- who's studying to be a neurologist -- on the forum "Coping with Epilepsy" says:

"Ok....you cannot "flush" stuff out of your body just by drinking water (unless you plan on drinking ridiculously large amounts of water, say 7-8 liters and even then you would be peeing away to compensate). Most anti-epileptic drugs are metabolized in the liver, a few in the kidney and a few in plasma. in any case, it won't alter your metabolism significantly.

I've never heard of anyone getting a seizure from low drug levels because they drank too much water.Your kidneys are the ultimate balancing act. If you drink more than you need , you pee more dilute urine. if you driink less you pee concentrated urine.

Only at extremes will your drug levels be affected...and in which case, you have way more to worry about than blood levels. The variables you mention do vary, but in inverse proportions and relatively independent of water intake. the concentration of urine relies more on sodium and water balance than anything else. Compared to the regular, everyday crap your kidneys filter out everyday, the drugs are a piece of cake."

Phylis Feiner Johnson     www.epilepsytalk.com

Re: drinking too much water

Submitted by princesscakes on Sat, 2011-06-25 - 13:54
The only time the doc told me to keep hydrated is after I was coming off a med ... he said I was dehydrated and he wanted me to flush me meds out faster and lessen the side effects I was having . I think as long as you take the medication it wont flush out of your system fast due to fluid intake as they do have a expected life in your body and are expected to metabolize at a certain rate . Maybe your body just metabolizing faster on its own and you require more medication. I don't know if thats possible but some people metabolize slower due to kidney disease or liver disease making the meds back up in the system causing overdosing .

Re: drinking too much water

Submitted by deep c on Tue, 2011-06-28 - 00:10
I find the opposite to be true, If I don't drink enough water, I tend to have seizures if I get dehydrated. According to my doctor, the body doesn't metabolize the medication as effectively when dehydrated. Just my observation- Carl

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