We're taught very early on about the benefits of drinking water. It helps flush out waste in our body, it gives you glowing skin, it lubricates the joints, and so much more. But on the other hand, having too much water comes with its own set of concerns. And Brooke Shields recently revealed that she experienced firsthand the dangers of having too much water.
While speaking with Glamour for this month's Women of the Year 2023 issue, Shields recalled the frightening moment she suffered a grand mal seizure after drinking too much water. It happened in September, days before she was set to open her one-woman show, Previously Owned by Brooke Shields, in New York City.
“Everything started to go black,” she explained. "Then my hands drop to my side and I go headfirst into the wall. I start having a grand mal seizure. It means frothing at the mouth, totally blue, trying to swallow my tongue. The next thing I remember, I’m being loaded into an ambulance. I have oxygen on.”
The 58-year-old model went into further detail on what exactly was happening to her body during the medical episode.
"I flooded my system, and I drowned myself. If you don’t have enough sodium in your blood or urine or your body, you can have a seizure,” said Shields.
Although she didn't reveal exactly how much water she had been drinking before the seizure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people should not drink more than 48 ounces (1½ quarts) of water per hour.
"Drinking too much water or other fluids (sports drinks, energy drinks, etc.) can cause a medical emergency because the concentration of salt in the blood becomes too low," the CDC reports.
