Dangers of Drinking Dirty Water

Everyone knows it's important to drink enough water, especially if you exercise a lot or live in a warm climate. The human body is about 50% water, so it is incredibly important to keep yourself hydrated. But what about the quality of water you drink? If you drink a lot of dirty or unsuitable water, this can have a lot of affects on your body.

Here are some of the chemicals or contaminants that can be found in water and what they do to your body:

Diarrhea
When you eat or drink something that your stomach doesn't like, it tries to get rid of it as soon as possible. This means, whatever else you have eaten or drunk will leave your body too. When food or drink doesn't stay in your body long enough to be absorbed, it can lead to malnutrition. In a medically advanced country such as Australia, it is easy to stop this from happening with things such as Immodium and electrolytes. But in other countries, this is one of the biggest killers.

Arsenicosis
Arsenicosis or arsenic poisoning happens after you have lot of exposure to naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater. Symptoms of arsenicosis include drowsiness, headaches, confusion and diarrhea. It can also cause a taste of metal in the mouth, excess saliva in the mouth and problems swallowing.

Flurosis
Flurosis is caused after having a lot of exposure to fluoride in water. You can either have dental or skeletal fluorosis and while both are serious, skeletal fluorosis contributes to the weakening of the skeletal system and therefore your whole body.

Cholera
This is when bacteria enter your stomach from dirty drinking water. It can be treated easily in medically advanced countries but in poorer countries that don't have the same access to healthcare as Australia, it can cause severe dehydration and lead to death.

Typhoid
Typhoid fever has four different stages that the sufferer can go through, usually lasting one week each. The first lot of symptoms include a raised temperature, headaches and a bad cough. Nose bleeds can also be a symptom in the first week. The second week sees high temperatures and fevers and often delirium and rose spots on the patient's body. It can also lead to intestinal perforation. Typhoid is treatable with antibiotics and doesn't have a high fatality rate when treated properly. Untreated typhoid can lead to death.