"Drink Ahead of Your Thirst" Wrong!

From an article in today's New York Times:

After years of telling athletes to drink as much liquid as possible to avoid dehydration, some doctors are now saying that drinking too much during intense exercise poses a far greater health risk.

An increasing number of athletes - marathon runners, triathletes and even hikers in the Grand Canyon - are severely diluting their blood by drinking too much water or too many sports drinks, with some falling gravely ill and even dying, the doctors say.

New research on runners in the Boston Marathon, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, confirms the problem and shows how serious it is.

The two thoughts that struck me as I read this article are 1) the old spoof on how both too little and too much "Hydrogen dioxide" in your body can kill you and 2) a woman I know who is evangelistic about folks drinking two liters of water per day to the point she regularly sends out messages to her email list.