Drinking 4 liters of water a day, the woman was admitted to the emergency room

On October 20, Munro said she had a respiratory infection that did not go away for several days. Besides taking medicine, she decided to drink lots of water to “flush” the disease out. As a result, the woman had a seizure due to water poisoning and had to be hospitalized for 5 days in June.

“The doctors didn’t understand how I could still survive. I slowly drowned myself without even realizing it,” she said. Water intoxication occurs when the body is unable to process the amount of water ingested too quickly, resulting in sodium and essential nutrients being reduced to dangerous levels.

Munro began suffering from laryngitis in May, then contracted mycoplasma from her daughter. She had symptoms of earache and sore throat and had to go to the doctor continuously. Because she is always busy, she has no time to rest. Munro took three courses of steroids, three courses of antibiotics, a nasal spray and Nurofen (a type of ibuprofen).

In early June, when leaving the gym, Munro felt “his body was not normal”. Worried, the woman went to the hospital and was advised to “drink lots of water” because doctors thought she was experiencing “steroid withdrawal” syndrome.

The next day, her vision was blurred, but she was still advised to drink more water. By the time she was admitted to the hospital on June 15, she had vomited continuously for three days because she “drank about 4 liters of water”.

“I thought I needed to drink a lot of water to flush out the disease,” she said.

Blood test results showed her sodium level was 100 milliliters per liter, well below the minimum allowable level, according to the Mayo Clinic. Normal blood sodium levels are between 135 and 145 milliliters per liter (mEq/L). Hyponatremia occurs when blood sodium levels fall below 135 mEq/L.

Symptoms of hyponatremia include nausea and vomiting, confusion, restlessness, headache, seizures, and coma. For treatment, patients are prescribed medication, given fluids, and temporarily restricted from drinking water.

Doctors said taking the medication combined with drinking lots of water created a “perfect storm”, causing the amount of sodium in Ms Munro’s blood to plummet. Currently, she only drinks water when she is thirsty and does not drink more than 1.5 liters per day. Before being hospitalized, her husband told her to always carry a glass of water with her.