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Doctor: Drinking Eight Glasses of Water a Day is 'Nonsense'
Doctor: Drinking Eight Glasses of Water a Day is 'Nonsense'
Health experts usually tout the advice to drink six to eight glasses of water a day, but a doctor this week is calling that "nonsense."
Margaret McCartney, a general practitioner in Glasgow, Scotland, challenged claims that people need to drink more water in an editorial in the British Medical Journal . She wrote the editorial after attending the annual scientific meeting of the Hydration for Health initiative, which she said was created by French food company Danone, a company that produces three brands of bottled water.
She called the six to eight glasses of fluids a day concept "not only nonsense, but … thoroughly debunked nonsense," ABC News reported. The Los Angeles Times said McCartney suggested this theory is being pushed by bottled water companies out to make a profit.
The Times said she suggested drinking too much water can cause hyponatremia, or low sodium levels in the blood, and expose people to pollutants.
"People still think that we're all going to die or our kidneys will shrivel up if we don't drink eight cups of water a day," the Vancouver Sun reported McCartney said. "From what I can see, there's never been any evidence in the medical literature about it."
She tentatively traced the adage to a U.S. research paper written in 1945 and a nutritionist's writings in the 1970s.
McCartney isn't the only one to challenge it. ABC News reported Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a nephrologist at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School, and colleagues addressed what they said were common water health myths in 2008.
Goldfarb told ABC News that "there really is no evidence that drinking more water makes you perform better." He also said it doesn't reduce appetite, won't help people with long-term weight loss, doesn't help one's complexion nor clear their body of toxins or reduce headaches.
Neither are necessarily saying there's a great health risk to drinking too much, suggesting people will just pee it out. They told ABC News they are more concerned that the conventional wisdom is being used as a marketing call to "drink more bottled water."
McCartney's editorial drew criticism from Thomas Sanders, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at the King's College of London. He responded to the British Medical Journal , stating that she "focused on the more whacky claims made for water and appeared to cherry pick her references to make a story."
Sanders said McCartney left out guidelines from the National Patient Safety Agency and groups such as the US Institute of Medicine.
As far as how much water to drink, Ohio State University assistant professor Dr. Randy Wexler told ABC News people can watch the color of their urine. The more clear it is, the more they are hydrated. The darker, the more dehydrated they are.
The Mayo Clinic listed different theories, including one that people need a little more than eight cups a day to replace water lost through breathing, sweating and urination.
The clinic suggested if someone drinks enough fluid to not be thirsty and to produce about six cups of slightly yellow urine a day they are probably fine.
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Originally Posted by Forrester
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