The science of saline – why can we drink pure water, but when we put water into our bodies in other ways, like an IV, must we add minerals to it?

Question

The science of saline – why can we drink pure water, but when we put water into our bodies in other ways, like an IV, must we add minerals to it?

In: 480

Answer 1

Food. It’s all about food. If you drank enough pure water you would in fact die. Your food has all the mineral you need normally.

For an interesting example of when this gets scary, Gorillas were observed eating rotten wood. It was determined that they were getting a substantial amount of potasium IIRC or sodium ? from the punky rotten wood. It turns out a vegetarian diet in the rain forest can be quite poor in minerals.

The reason they add salt to fluids added directly into the blood is to try and match the concentration of the blood. You could add pure water to the veins very very slowly and you’d probably still be ok. But people have died from being given large amounts of pure water by accident into a vein.