Too Much of a Good Thing

Jennifer Strange wanted to do something really nice for her three kids. She heard about this contest on the radio titled, "Hold your wee for a Wii." It was a contest where participants had to drink water at continuous regular intervals and hold their urine until there was only one contestant left. The winner would get a Nintendo Wii. She wanted very badly to win this for her kids. The problems is, keeping large amounts of excess water in your body can be deadly. This was the case for Jennifer. She was found dead in her home a couple hours after leaving the competition. She died of water intoxication.
I've never heard of water intoxication before. But, apparently it is an issue for marathon runners and other athletes competing in long endurance sports. Also, it has caused deaths in college fraternities where those who are pledging are hazed by being forced to binge on water. The thought there being that binging on water is much safer than alcohol. Water in general is considered to be great for the body. Sometimes though, as the saying goes, you can have too much of a good thing.

For more on information on this story.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/13/water.intox.ap/index.html