Many Thais have misunderstanding about drinking too much water can cause kidney failure; in fact, water helps dilute toxins before entering to the kidneys. When we frequently have urination the kidneys are not working intensively as how people think instead it indicates how effective our body excretion is, to see a picture clearly, think of washing dishes “the more they are washed the cleaner” using more water for cleaning gives better cleaning result. From this metaphor, patients with kidney problem therefore require water drinking to drive out waste that is still left inside the body.
Why patients with kidney failure … should avoid drinking a lot of water?
For patients with last stage kidney failure some people may have lung problem with a condition called “Pulmonary Edema” it easily occurs in those receiving Hemodialysis regularly in order to save their lives from bad symptoms. This group of people have no urine left for urination due to procedure as a result while drinking plenty of water amount of liquid causes them retention or blocking the water from flowing out of the body following conditions called mineral deficiency will also happen after therefore, doctors always suggest the patients to avoid the drinking; however it is still harmful to those living in hot area such as Thailand.
Boiled tap water maybe not safe as you think!
Drinking water should be filtered instead of being boiled which many people often do that in fact, a process of water supply system requires aluminum salt to filter dirt also adds chlorine to sterilize diseases. Thus, boiling the supply water causes more poisonous heavy metal contaminates in the water.
Know more about “Drinking water from water filters”
Using water filter that is called Reverse Osmosis Water or RO is not recommended and it is also banned in many countries since the RO water has its quality close to distilled water leading the body to mineral deficiency however, good water should be mineral water processed through natural filtering system under alkalinity.
Currently, there are many advertisements of water filter brands that shows how products can change the water to alkaline qualification that is because our body produces acidity while eating food including having the blood acidity which is a cause of intensive functioning of lungs and kidneys ; beside, the blood acidity is also a reason disease called osteoporosis , gout including cancer.
Alkaline Water Machine that has been selling today divided into two different types: type one makes water pass through a special filter that add more minerals and make it alkaline. This machine does not require a use of electricity with inexpensive price during boiling process there will be water sediment, another one requires a use of electricity to separate the water charge (acid/ alkaline) ; acidic water will come out as waste only alkaline side used for drinking this type of filter is more expensive than the first one.
However, as nowadays people prefer to listen to story telling which brings us misconception about drinking water, remember that it is not as scary as it has been told the water cannot harm us ; those who are still healthy and have two kidneys perfectly should drink more water , start it from today before it is too late!
Asst. Prof. Dr. Pattana teng-umnuay
Specialist of kidney diseases (Nephrology) Phyathai 2 Hospital
Medicine Center 1st Floor , Building A
Phyathai 2 Hospital
Tel. +662-617-2444 ext. 4104, 4106
Phyathai Call Center 1772
