Since you body can only adsorb water at a certain rate, chugging water if you are dehydrated does little good.
I mean, some of it is stored in the stomach, but oftentimes you will need to urinate soon after drinking late amounts of water.
How does the excess water get transferred to the bladders quickly if it isn’t adsorbed by the body?
In: Biology
It’s first absorbed through the small intestine and stomach and used for energy synthesis and universal hydration. excess water is excreted with metabolic waste through the kidneys and then bladder. Unlike solid matter, the time necessary to process the water is significantly less than food so your bladder will start to fill within minutes once your body’s determined it can no longer absorb anymore
When you take in water, it’s absorbed through your intestines and stomach. Some is used to expel waste from the kidneys, some is used to provide water to the body’s chemical processes that need water as an input, some is used to dilute your stomach acid so it doesn’t burn through your stomach lining, etc. It’s shuffled off to where it’s needed.
When you take in excess water over a short time, that extra water is discarded, essentially. Sent to where it’s needed, then the excess to your bladder through your kidneys. The same happens with water soluble vitamins taken in excess, they’re discarded and you pee them out. The body regulates itself and knows how much water is needed. This process can be pretty fast, as too much water building up can cause problems.
You expel water through other means too, not just pee. Your breath contains tons of water (it’s why clouds form when you breathe out in cold weather!), your sweat, your saliva (if you spit), etc are all ways of discarding extra water.
It can cause a salt (electrolyte) imbalance. Your body will be unable to filter the water in time to correct this balance via kidney processing and urination. Your body relies on a certain balance of salts (electrolytes) for many functions, most important being heart function.
You are right, chugging water won’t lead to hydrating faster than drinking the same amount of water more slowly within reason. But there is a lot of blood flow to your stomach so within seconds of drinking water, it’s going into your blood stream. A few seconds later it’s moving through your kidneys, and then into your bladder. I’m skipping over a few steps but if you think about it, pure water can actually be dangerous, even fatal if you drink too much. You need to get rid of any excess water very quickly.
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