Advice to ‘drink plenty of fluids’ questioned
3rd December 2016
“Drink plenty of fluids” and “keep well hydrated” is common advice for patients with mild infective illness, but a new report by emergency medicine specialists questions this age-old wisdom.
Published in The BMJ, the paper cites the case of a 59-year-old woman who developed hyponatraemia - a condition that occurs when the level of sodium is abnormally low - from drinking too much water to help with a recurring urinary tract infection.
The patient was admitted to the Royal London Hospital Emergency Department and was prescribed antibiotics and painkillers for her urinary tract infection. However, she