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Health Line
02-06-2025
- General
- Health Line
Hypervolemia (Fluid Overload) Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment
Hypervolemia occurs if your body retains too much fluid. You can experience swelling, discomfort, and other symptoms. Untreated, hypervolemia can cause severe complications, including heart failure. Hypervolemia, or fluid overload, occurs when your body holds onto more fluid than it needs, leading to swelling and other complications. Fluids in the body include: water blood lymphatic fluid If the amount of fluid gets too high, it can impact how it's moved through your body and negatively affect your organ function. Keep reading to learn the signs and causes of hypervolemia and how doctors diagnose and treat the condition. What are the signs and symptoms of hypervolemia? The symptoms of hypervolemia can include: swelling, also called edema, most often in the feet, ankles, wrists, and face discomfort in the body, causing cramping, headache, and abdominal bloating high blood pressure caused by excess fluid in the bloodstream shortness of breath caused by extra fluid entering your lungs and reducing your ability to breathe normally heart problems, because excess fluid can speed up or slow your heart rate, harm your heart muscles, and increase the size of your heart increased weight, caused by excess fluid Medical emergency If you experience severe symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, severe pain, or irregular heart rhythm, call 911 or your local emergency services, or visit a local emergency department. What causes hypervolemia? Often, problems with your kidneys cause hypervolemia. This is because the kidneys normally balance the salts and fluids in your body. But when they retain salt, they increase the body's total sodium content, which increases your fluid content. The most common causes of hypervolemia can include: heart failure, specifically of the right ventricle cirrhosis, often caused by excess alcohol consumption or hepatitis kidney failure, often caused by diabetes and other metabolic disorders nephrotic syndrome, a disorder that causes excess excretion of protein in the urine premenstrual edema, or swelling that occurs prior to your menstrual cycle pregnancy, which changes your hormonal balance and can result in fluid retention You can also experience hypervolemia from being on an IV, which can cause your sodium levels to be unbalanced. It can also occur if you consume too much sodium. How is hypervolemia diagnosed? If you believe you're experiencing hypervolemia, speak with a doctor. They can determine if you're experiencing this condition. First, a doctor typically conducts a physical exam. The key signs of hypervolemia include weight gain and swelling. One or more parts of your body may appear swollen, depending on whether you have been sitting, lying, or standing before your visit. The doctor is also likely to perform a blood test to check your sodium levels. While your body's total sodium levels will appear elevated if you have hypervolemia, your sodium levels in the blood work may be high, normal, or low. Performing a sodium test on your urine can help determine if your kidneys are causing your hypervolemia or if there is another cause. For renal failure, urinary sodium content is typically greater than 20 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L), while in cases of heart failure, cirrhosis, and nephrotic syndrome, it is typically less than 10 mEq/L. If you are hospitalized, your care team may measure your fluid intake and output and your weight to check for hypervolemia. Can hypervolemia lead to other conditions? Untreated hypervolemia can cause several complications, some of which can be life threatening. These can include: pericarditis, or swelling of the heart tissues heart failure delayed wound healing tissue breakdown decreased bowel function How is hypervolemia treated? Treatment of hypervolemia differs from person to person, depending on the cause of the condition. Generally, people with hypervolemia may receive a round of diuretics. These medications remove excess fluid. In severe cases, a doctor may recommend dialysis (fluid removal through the kidneys) and paracentesis (fluid removal through the abdomen). A doctor may also require you to restrict your dietary sodium intake. What is the outlook for hypervolemia? While you recover from hypervolemia, a doctor may request that you weigh yourself daily to ensure you're expelling the excess fluid from your body. Many people who stick to a doctor's treatment plans fully recover. This can be important for preventing severe complications. If an underlying condition is causing your hypervolemia, treating the underlying condition may help your recovery. Besides monitoring your weight, you can prevent a recurrence of fluid overload by: tracking your fluid intake following the fluid intake guidelines from a doctor managing your thirst with sugar-free candies, ice chips, frozen grapes, and other low-fluid, thirst-quenching foods ensuring you do not consume too much sodium
Health Line
19-05-2025
- Health
- Health Line
How Long Does It Take for Water to Pass Through Your Body?
Water can be absorbed within minutes of ingestion. Your kidneys are always active, so any water your body doesn't need will come out via urine or sweat. This happens much faster than it takes solid food to pass out of your body as stool. It can vary among different people, but generally it takes around 28 hours to move food through your digestive tract. Liquids are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, and fluids in excess of the body's needs are eliminated via the kidneys as urine, much faster. Water absorption can occur as soon as 5 minutes after ingestion and peaks around 20 minutes after ingestion. Your kidneys are continually producing urine, so excess liquids are quickly eliminated this way. How long after drinking water is it absorbed? Once you drink water, it is processed by your digestive tract in a shortened process. In other words, not every one of your digestive organs needs to be super involved in each step of processing water. If you're drinking a lot of water, you might want to make sure that there's a bathroom nearby. As you drink water, it enters your stomach and is quickly processed through to your small intestine. The large intestine (colon) also absorbs some water. Nearly all the water is absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine. The excess fluid absorbed in the blood is filtered by the kidneys, which produce the urine that is transported to the bladder. How is digesting water different than other liquids? Water is typically digested more quickly than some other liquids. That's because there's very little that your body needs to do to change the water in order to absorb it. If a liquid has any type of carbohydrate content (such as sugar), dyes, fats, or proteins, then your body needs to process those elements. That's why it may take additional time to digest liquids like iced tea and sweetened coffee, and even longer to digest smoothies and broth that may contain proteins and fats. In general, simple liquids like tea and juice take about 30 minutes to digest and absorb. Complex liquids like bone broth can take an hour or more. Does water pass through you faster than food? Water passes through your body much more quickly than food. When you eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, for example, enzymes in your mouth start the process of digestion. Each bite then needs to be squeezed through your esophagus and into your stomach. Once it's there, your stomach acid can work to break down components further. The different elements of that sandwich (carbohydrates, sugars, fats, and proteins) are then further broken down and absorbed in your intestines. Anything that remains after the foodstuff has passed through your colon becomes feces. With water, several of these steps are not necessary. There's nothing to really extract or derive from the water (besides the water itself, which your body needs for a variety of processes). That's what makes processing water so much faster — technically, it's a simple filtration process, with very little to actually 'digest.' What affects digestion time? Digestion time varies according to your body. There are multiple factors that can slow or speed digestion. Your metabolism. Some people's bodies naturally take longer to digest and eliminate food. This is completely normal. Your diet. Foods that are starchy and soft may digest quickly in your stomach and intestines, but they may not exit your body until later. The amount and type of fiber in foods also affect how quickly foods pass through your digestive system. Your diet makes a difference. Your health history. Health conditions like irritable bowel disease (IBD) and colitis change the rhythms of your daily digestion. Past surgeries. Certain digestive conditions that affect your digestion, such as dumping syndrome, are more common in people who have had stomach surgery. Activity. How often you move around and exercise may also influence how quickly your body breaks down and digests food. How does water leave your body? Water doesn't just leave your body through the urination process! After your body absorbs water, some of it ends up in your cells and is part of what makes up your blood. When your body is ready to excrete water that you've consumed, it can leave via several ways: Urine. After your kidneys process water, much of it is excreted through urine. Sweat. When your body needs to control its temperature, water exits your body in the form of sweat. Stool. Your poop contains a certain amount of water that helps make it heavy enough to exit your body.
