So, I went and bought this 64 oz. cup at Wal-Mart. I thought this might be a good way to get my daily water intake in. Now I have been drinking at least 3 or 4 of these a day. That is A LOT of water. I am a little bit bloated, just a little bit, not to the point of bothering me, though. Anyway, my question is, can you drink too much water? I heard about this case where these people gave this girl too much water and her brain swelled and she died. I don't want my brain to swell and die in the pursuance of good health. Seriously, how much water should I drink and how much is too much?
Belle

You are drinking about 2 gallons of water a day when you drink 4 of these 'cups'. You could cut this in half and still benefit.

As long as you are spreading your intake over the day, it won't harm you.
However I agree with Robert that you probably don't really need that much.

Deaths from water intoxication are caused when someone drinks an enormous amount of water very quickly. For example, if you were to drink 4 of your 64 oz cups in an hour, you might wind up in trouble.
The other time when too much water is a problem, is when distance runners drink plain water rather than water with added electrolytes. They can have severe problems due to low sodium.

So, unless you are drinking your water all at once, or running a marathon, you're fine.

Rosebud

I was just going to add that in RARE cases (such as what Rosebud mentioned), people who drink more water than their kidneys can handle may suffer water intoxication, where sodium in the body becomes diluted, causing behavoiral changes or even brain damager. Probably wouldn't cause one's brain to explode though!

One caution, though. I saw a recent segment on CNN (Fox?) on people who swig from the same water bottle all day long, just refilling it. They went to a gym and took samples from everyone's water bottles. Only the bottles that were newly opened tested clean. ALL the other ones had highly elevated levels of bacteria in them, and some even tested positive for e. coli!

So drink your water. Just wash the container from time to time.

it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Marathoners can die of hyponatremia (sp) which is basically lack of salt. I personally think drinking water is a good thing. That said, you can have too much of a good thing. I guess it might be possible to flush out good bacteria and other useful organisms in your body. ??? You definetly should stay close to a bathroom!!

I don't think you'll die from that much water, but please be ware that if you are drinking a lot of extra water for no good reason, you will urinate a lot, and in so you will be losing a lot of electrolytes and minerals. I find when I drink too much water I get that dizzy feeling from lack of potassium.

IMO, just drink the basic amount of water, recommended and more as desired if you are thirstier than that.

I drink about a gallon a day without a problem and sometimes a little more. I agree with the others, as long as you're not drinking it all at once, I think you'll be fine... just make sure you are taking supplements.

...and those supplements would be calcium, magnesium and potassium, i.e. the electrolytes we flush out drinking all that water.

Belle,
A good rule of thumb in determining the amount of water you should drink is to divide your weight in half and drink that many ounces of water. For example, you are 190# (Oh, to be there again!) Half of that is 95 so you should be drinking at least 95 ounces of water a day. For those who point out the 8-10 8oz glasses rule I point out that that works perfectly for the average size woman or man. The "average" woman is 120-130#, let's say 128, half of that is 64 oz.- 8 8oz glasses! For the "average" man of about 160# half of that is 80 oz.-10 8oz. glasses! So for those of us of more "generous" proportions we need to drink proportionately more water. Any other drinks should be above and beyond you water quota. I can really tell when I am not getting enough water, esp. in my joints! Curses upon the fiend that invented soda!!!!