A woman in Canada claims she was hospitalized after drinking four liters of water for 12 days as part of the popular “75 Hard” social media challenge, which entails drinking a gallon (about four liters) of water every day for 75 days. Michelle Fairburn described her experience in a TikTok video, explaining how drinking too much water made her feel ill. Her mother, a real estate salesperson in Toronto, feared her daughter had “water poisoning.”
Water poisoning is a disorder induced by drinking too much water that can be lethal in the most severe cases.
Fairburn, who shared the video on TikTok on the 12th day of the viral challenge, said she didn’t feel well when she went to bed the night before and had woken up numerous times during the night to use the restroom. She went on to say that she couldn’t eat, that she was queasy, that she felt weak, and that she had been “on the toilet all morning.”
“I’m doing the 75 Hard, so I’m drinking an excessive amount of water,” Fairburn said in the video. “I don’t know what to do.”
Later that day, she posted another update, stating that she had seen a doctor, who diagnosed her with severe sodium deficiency and advised her to go to the hospital.
“Sodium deficiency actually can be fatal,” Fairburn said in the second video. “So now I’m going to the hospital and they’re going to check everything and then apparently they can raise my sodium gradually.”
She stated that she intended to continue working out, but that she had been instructed to drink no more than half a liter of water per day.