Water Storage in the Body: Understanding Absorption and Release

[Nuklear]

WHen you drink some water it goes into your intestines and to you tissues and cells. WHat happens between there. Were is it stored between you intestins and your cells.

Say you drank a whole lot of water thwen you were dehydrated. But instead of going into your tissues it still hangs somewhere and you still look and feel dehydrated. Were is ll that extra water being held and how could/would you release it?

 

[chroot]

Your body is essentially some proteins and other gunk floating in a big bath of water. Water exists throughout your body, inside your cells, in your blood, between your cells, etc.

Water goes from your stomach or intestine into your bloodstream, and from there on to every other part of your body. It takes some time for water to be absorbed from the gut and actually get into your cells. There is no "secret extra water" being held anywhere in your body, however.

- Warren

 

[jim mcnamara]

There is no pool of water - except maybe in your bladder. There is a concept called homeostasis. Homeostatic mechanisms act to keep water and electrolytes in the body within certain bounds. Some of these are: thirst, urination, sweating, digestion, resorbtion.

Homeostasis basically means 'staying the same'

 

[DaveC426913]

The lymph system is much like the blood system, only the lymph system transports lymph - which is mostly water.

 

[Nuklear]

So if I drink a lot of water and feel it or my tissues don't begin to inflate it's in my bloodstream? How would I get it out?

 

[jim mcnamara]

Unless you drink vast amounts of water, your body excretes it without your help.

And no, it's not in your just blood stream - it's kind of everywhere.
Dave mentioned lymph, there is so-called interstitial water(between cells), and so on.

 

[Moonbear]

So if I drink a lot of water and feel it or my tissues don't begin to inflate it's in my bloodstream? How would I get it out?

Excess water can be very quickly moved from your bloodstream through your kidneys where it is filtered out and passed along to your bladder, from which you can excrete it through urination.

Here is a site that will give you a nice overview of how that happens, complete with animations to help visualize the process: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nursing/sonet/rlos/bioproc/kidneyphysiology/2.html

 

[DaveC426913]

The first thing you'll notice upon drinking water is that your headache will go away.

A surprising number of headaches - and certainly hangovers - are caused by dehydration. If you want to speed up the process, add salt and/or sugar. They attach themselves to water and greatly increase its uptake into the body. That's what Gatorade is all about.

And that, by the way, is the last hangover you'll ever have.