Woman dies from drinking too much water.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A woman who competed in a radio station’s contest to see how much water she could drink without going to the bathroom died of water intoxication, the coroner’s office said Saturday.

Jennifer Strange, 28, was found dead Friday in her suburban Rancho Cordova home hours after taking part in the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest in which KDND 107.9 promised a Nintendo Wii video game system for the winner.

“She said to one of our supervisors that she was on her way home and her head was hurting her real bad,” said Laura Rios, one of Strange’s co-workers at Radiological Associates of Sacramento. “She was crying and that was the last that anyone had heard from her.”

They call it WATER INTOXICATION or more technically HYPONATREMIA. It happens when the body’s balance of salt and water become quickly diluted. It affects the production of nerve impulses, and impairs mental processes. Cells take on extra water and expand. As they swell, they put stress on the body’s organs, particularly the brain, which has little room to expand within the skull. Sometimes Hyponatremia is caused by an underlying medical condition.
Hyponatremia isn’t unique to the military. Indeed, marathon runners, tri-athletes, even high-desert hikers all can succumb. “Most people aren’t aware of the risk of drinking too much water,” said Bob Murray, director of Gatorade Sports Science Institute. Sport drinks are engineered to replace both salt and fluids depleted during exercise. Drinking sports drinks can help; but it alone can’t maintain adequate sodium levels for people engaging in rigorous, endurance–level activity.
The point is you need to replenish not only the fluids you lose when you sweat, but the salt as well. Nothing that comes out of your body is pure water. So you’ve got to replace it with both the salt and water, Not Just Water.
Water Intoxication typically occurs over 4 to 6 hours or more. It attacks participants in High–Endurance events, such as marathons, long road marches and triathlons in which participants swim, bicycle and run long distances in non–stop succession.
Source

Family sues Calif. radio station after woman dies
Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:52am ET


SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - The family of a California woman who died after participating in a radio station's water-drinking contest will sue the station, their lawyer said on Thursday.

Jennifer Strange, 28, a mother of three, died from suspected water intoxication after taking part in Friday's competition, "Hold your wee for a Wii." About 20 people tried to out-drink each other without going to the toilet to win a Nintendo Wii game console.