Water poisoning is also called "hyponatremia," which should clarify things: The problem is not that you have too much water, it's that you have too little salt in your body. Here's a good article on it, and I'll summarize it here; basically what happens is that when you drink WAY too much water the water/salts balance in your body goes kablooie. Since you use salts like potassium, sodium, and magnesium to do everything from sending nerve impulses to controlling how much water is in a particular cell, when the balance gets drastically disturbed, bad things happen. Vomiting, diarrhea, excessive salivation, muscle tremors, stupor, confusion. Death or coma can result; that's probably caused by the swelling of the brain. Susceptibility to hyponatremia dependson body weight, amount of food in the system at the time, the body's control of urine production, and some other factors which are not clearly understood.

So now we know what it is and how you get it. The best cure for it, and the way to make sure you don't ever experience it, is to EAT LOTS OF SALTS! Salty snacks and electrolyte water -- there are some that are low carb, like Glaceau Fruitwater or Smartwater (though NOT the Vitaminwater, which is high carb!) -- are good ways of making sure this won't happen to you. Especially if you're doing something like the Great Hangover Avoidance Water Chug, make sure you've got some salty nuts or something on hand.

Just call me the Water Fairy :->
Holly