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

Imo the real ili5 explanation:

When you drink a beverage your body decides whether or not to add the water content to your bloodstream. This decision is made by at testing sites in your kidneys that see how salty your blood is. If your blood isn’t very salty, it will generally not add much water to your bloodstream, because it has enough.

If you’re putting pure water in your bloodstream, you’re totally bypassing the step of your body deciding if it wants it, and cells don’t like when you have too much water in your blood.