Overhydrating like Tom Brady is linked to dangerous brain swelling

NFL star Tom Brady and Riverdale actress Madelaine Petsch both sparked controversy this year as each attributed their peak physique to drinking excessive amounts of water.

Scores of nutritionists and doctors reacted, warning that is a sure-fire way for most of us, who do not work out professionally, to develop a sodium deficiency. 

Now, a new study shows yet another caveat.

Our bodies, Canadian scientists found, are not well-trained at detecting overhydration – and over-drinking water can lead to a life-threatening brain condition called hyponatremia, particularly in elderly people. 

The study, the first to show how hyponatremia is detected in the brain, concludes we are largely ignorant about the issue of over-hydration and the body’s inability to cope with it.

Tom Brady claims to drink at least 37 glasses of water daily – five times the recommended amount. But nutritionists warn this could be damaging to your body’s sodium levels

Keeping hydrated: Madelaine Petsch, 23, revealed she drinks double the recommended water intake every day, as well as working out six days a week and eating under 1,700 calories

Keeping hydrated: Madelaine Petsch, 23, revealed she drinks double the recommended water intake every day, as well as working out six days a week and eating under 1,700 calories

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady recently revealed he drinks half his weight in water every day. The 40-year-old football star is revered for his surprisingly good physical health so late in his career as arguably the NFL’s best ever quarterback. However, his lifestyle choices are extreme: in his new book The TB12 Method, he claims to drink at least 37 glasses of water daily – five times the recommended amount. 

He is not the only svelte celebrity to do so. 

Madelaine Petsch, 23, a lifelong vegan, has revealed she drinks 27 cups of water a day to stay trim. She works out six days a week for an hour-and-a-half, and keeps her calorie intake under 1,700 a day, which is 300 short of the recommended daily amount for women. But it was her hydration habit that caused a stir, after she revealed to People that she drinks 13 500-milliliter bottles daily – double the amount advised for females. 

While each person’s water needs are different, experts warn this ‘hydration diet’ could be dangerous for fans. For people who work out for a living, like Brady and Petsch, it may be warranted – although those who eat plenty of vegetables – such as vegans and vegetarians – do not need as much water because they get hydration from other sources.

These celebrity accounts have triggered a mainstream conversation about overhydration – something that has long been an issue, but is under-researched.

EXPLAINED:  HYPONATREMIA, THE DEADLY CONDITION TRIGGERED BY TOM BRADY’S WATER DIET

Sodium, an electrolyte, helps regulate the level of water in and around your cells.

If your sodium becomes too diluted, your cells start to swell, causing Hyponatremia.

This can cause headaches and confusion and fatigure, but can also lead to muscle weakness, cramps, seizures, and even a coma.

The risk is particularly high for older adults and people on medication.

It is most commonly heard-of among endurance athletes, who overhydrate during a competition, or people taking illicit drugs like ecstasy.

Dehydration is widely researched, given that it is a cause of death in many developing countries. In general, studies on overhydration have focused on drug abusers who drink too much water when they’re high, or hospital patients, or the elderly. 

It means the ratio of research between the two is skewed – problematic for those drug abusers and patients who have a higher risk of overhydrating, and for the general public if drinking excessive amounts of water is set to become a health fad.

‘[Hyponatremia] occurs in common pathological conditions, including brain injury, sepsis, cardiac failure and in the use of drugs, such as MDMA (ecstasy),’ says lead author Dr Charles Bourque, professor in McGill’s Department of Neurology.

But, he warns, few studies have looked into why our bodies are so bad at coping with this issue. 

His team at the Centre for Research in Neuroscience at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre has spent years investigating the under-researched area of overhydration.

Their discoveries include understanding how the brain detects and prevents dehydration, how salt intake increases blood pressure, and how the brain’s biological clock stimulates thirst prior to sleep.

Now, his team, led by one of his PhD students Sorana Ciura, has uncovered a key piece to the puzzle of how our brains detect hyponatremia and regulate overhydration. 

Ciura, who is now at the Institut Imagine, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades in Paris, found that the brain’s hydration sensing neurons do not detect overhydration in the same way that they detect dehydration.

Overhydration, they found, activates Trpv4 – a cellular gatekeeper that is crucial for maintaining the balance of water in the body.

Trpv4 is a calcium channel that can be found in glial cells, which are cells that act to surround hydration sensing neurons.

‘Our study shows that it is in fact glial cells that first detect the overhydrated state and then transfer this information to turn off the electrical activity of the [hydration sensing] neurons,’ explains Dr Bourque. 

The researchers also found that it is the release of the amino acid taurine that acts to inhibit hydration sensing neurons. 

Essentially, when overhydration is detected by glial cells, the Trpv4 channel triggers the release of taurine, which acts as a trip wire to inhibit hydration sensing neurons.

The brain’s ability to detect excess hydration is essential to maintaining fluid balance in the body and preventing conditions like hyponatremia.

‘Preclinical models of hyponatremia will be used to examine if the mechanism we report is affected in this condition with the long-term objective of designing new treatments or diagnostic tools,’ concludes Dr Bourque.



Read more at DailyMail.co.uk