Normal tap water has a pretty low sodium content anyways (4.8 ppm in SF), so why... | Hacker News

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refurb on Nov 6, 2013 | parent | context | favorite | on: How the Terrible, Insufferable Six-Day Water Fast ...

Normal tap water has a pretty low sodium content anyways (4.8 ppm in SF), so why would distilled water be that much worse? Blood is typically 3.3g/L or 3.3 ppt.

Your kidneys are pretty dam good at reabsorbing essential ions.

I'm sure an electrolyte imbalance would be an issue eventually, I'm just not sure distilled water would make that much of a difference.

abecedarius on Nov 6, 2013 [–]

why would distilled water be that much worse?

Not what I meant: I'd wonder the same thing about tap water. The question is isotonic vs. low-salt; distilled just takes it to its extreme.

(When I found out about hyponatremia the hard way, it was with tap water.)

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