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Comment by dylan604 | Hacker News Reader

"He was still drinking 2L...(his entire fluid intake)"

Isn't that low? I drink at least a gallon a day, and more during summer.

I learned the hard way via kidney stone that low fluid intake is bad. After further analysis of the stone's makeup, my doctor's prescription for avoiding future stones was stay hydrated. I have followed that advice ever since.

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The idea that you need to drink liters of water a day is a modern invention due to misreading of research. It completely depends on the weather, exertion, and how much water is in the food you eat.

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-nutrition/water-myt...

You deciding that need is a misreading is you assuming what other's lifestyles are. If you have one of your listed caveats, you need that amount. Your suggesting that it's not needed It also has to do with the person's metabolism and other factors.

You're right, I should have added genetics and disease as well! The gist is if your urine is of a light color and you have no issues there is no need to worry or try to force yourself to drink.

That would depend on the size of the person, and water loss. Over hydration is taxing on the kidney as well, not to mention the fact that the patient in that study was drinking tea.

I'm surprised that the doctor didn't mention drinking plain water, or perhaps it was rejected by the patient, and it's customary to exclude that from these kind of report?

The TFA said that at some point he went 1 week without any tea and just water as part of the testing, so yeah, the doctor DID have him drink plain water

Climate also plays into this. I live in the pacific northwest, and I need to drink VERY little liquid go stay hydrated - there are plenty of days where I drink less than 1L and feel fine. But when i go anywhere dryer - e.g. southern california - I’m constantly dehydrated. England is pretty humid most of the year, a lot like the PNW.

I'm going to assume you live west of the Cascades... east of the Cascades I drink like a fish because the air is so dry.

On an average day working my office desk job, my hydration goal is 2L and it's plenty. I often have to force myself over the finish line. (And I was a trained healthcare professional in a former life; I know how to judge hydration and I'm plenty well hydrated.) I cannot even remotely imagine drinking 4L of water in a day unless I was doing manual labor in warm weather for most of the day.

Is the hydration the problem here? I presumed the caffeine content (or some other chemical; I guess other people cite bergamot?) was the issue. My Google searches seem to suggest 2L – 4L of Earl Grey works out to about 400 – 800mg of caffeine/d, which is "pushing the upper daily limit" to "way over a sane daily limit".

I didn't think the hydration was the issue at hand in the OP.

I wasn't focusing on the issue. I was just asking if 2L/day is normal when I'm much closer to 4L/day. I can now recognize when I'm low on my intake, and 2L is definitely low for me. So I was asking more from curiosity if I'm the outlier or if the 2L/day is the outlier.

As with all things medical, it looks like the answer is "it depends on the specific patient"

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