Drinking much water isn’t as good as you think

We’re constantly told drinking plenty of water will lead to clear skin and an alert mind. But experts now warn drinking too much fluid is unnecessary and could actually be harmful. Not only can it lead to kidney problems, but it can also trigger something particularly embarrassing - excessive sweating.

Professor Mark Whiteley, a consultant vascular Surgeon at The Whiteley Clinic, London, is one of the leading experts in the condition, known medically as hyperhidrosis. Hundreds of patients visit him each year suffering so badly they are considering surgery to remove their sweat glands.

But in many cases, they are simply drinking way too much fluid.

‘In fact, the first and most important thing I ask them is how much water they consume,’ he told MailOnline.

He said: ‘Lots of advertisers advertise water, and say you have to drink two or three litres a day. That’s medically incorrect. If you go to intensive care you will be but on 1.5 litres of fluid per 24 hours,’ he explained. ‘If a doctor came along and gave you 2 litres, you’d get heart failure and they’d be sacked.'

Around half a litre of fluid is metabolised from food every day, and most people drink tea and coffee on top of that intake. 

‘You don’t need much extra,' Professor Whiteley said. ‘If you drink more, your kidneys have to work extra hard to get rid of this fluid load. Then you sweat it out, which makes people sweat even more. There’s this weird idea that if you’re drinking too much and sweating, you need to drink more. People should be saying “Drink if you’re thirsty”. Urine should be yellowish, clear.’

His warning comes after a paper published in the British Medical Journal said NHS advice to drink six to eight glasses a day is ‘not only nonsense, but thoroughly debunked nonsense’.

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