Too Much Water, Known as Water Toxicity, Can Be Fatal

“Chugging water at the end of a hot day or after a workout is dangerous,” says Dr. Eugene Vortsman, an emergency room physician

Vanessa Etienne is an Emerging Content Writer-Reporter for PEOPLE.

Water toxicity has been in the news lately after an Indiana mom of two died last month after drinking too much water during a family vacation. Similarly, a TikToker was hospitalized from "drinking an excessive amount of water" while trying a viral fitness challenge.

With the alarming health complications that can come from guzzling too much water, PEOPLE spoke to Dr. Eugene Vortsman, an emergency room physician at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, about what water toxicity is and what people should know about hydrating throughout the day.

Water toxicity can occur when someone drinks water faster than their body can process, which is about 1 liter per hour, Vortsman says. An excessive amount of water can cause “real damage” as it throws off the balance of your blood.

“Normally your body is in balance with your electrolytes — really important. And the way the sodium, potassium, and calcium really work together is that's how your nerves work, that's how your muscles work, and that's how your brain works,” Vortsman tells PEOPLE. “So if you ever have a sudden quick, or even a prolonged low sodium level, also known as hyponatremia, what happens is you start having dysfunction of all that.”

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He continues, “In the worst case scenario, which is what happened with this woman recently, is that in that imbalance your body's trying to find balance and it shoots a lot of water into the tissue of your brain. And what happens is you start having swelling and edema. So your brain kind of swells up and in your skull, you don't really have that much space to swell up. So it can get bad really quickly.”

It’s rare to reach a severe stage of water toxicity that results in death, Vortsmans says. However, he admits it is fairly simple to become symptomatic. Early symptoms include nausea, vomiting, headache, muscle cramping, body weakness, brain fog, lethargy, and vision changes like double vision or blurry vision.

It’s important to gradually stay hydrated throughout a hot day or throughout a workout. Vortsman suggests that women should be drinking 2.5 liters of water over the entire day — and men should be drinking 3.5 liters of water per day, stressing that steady hydration is the key to safety.

“Chugging water at the end of a hot day or after a workout is dangerous because your brain is telling you, ‘Hey, I'm thirsty, I feel dehydrated.’ And you overcompensate versus slowly and surely just making sure that you stay hydrated,” he says. “Drink a little bit of water and give your body time to find that balance again.”

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“Over hydrating is that liter to a liter-and-a-half per hour because your kidneys will manage just about a liter per hour on its own of getting rid of fluid. Again, emphasis on slowly drinking that amount of fluid throughout the day and not guzzling,” Vortsman adds. “So around 3 liters throughout the entire day is a good adequate amount of fluid hydration.”

For those who do find themselves over hydrating and drinking an excessive amount of water in a short period of time, experts stress the need to seek medical attention in order to receive a very calculated treatment plan.

“It's very hard to know how imbalanced you are,” Vortsman tells PEOPLE. “So first of all, obviously slow down your hydration. And honestly, if you start feeling symptoms, I would strongly urge to go to your closest emergency department to get assessed because fixing that sodium level has to be done very carefully and measured because it can cause other problems if it takes too long to fix.”

“Doctors will have to give them a balanced amount of water with sodium so that it helps bring them slowly but surely back to the right balance level,” he adds.