SAEDNEWS: We all know water is essential for life. But did you know that over 96% of the Earth’s liquid water is salty ocean water? As tempting as it might seem during a survival situation, drinking salt water can’t quench your thirst—in fact, it can make you more dehydrated and may even lead to death.
According to SAEDNEWS, Salt water, like ocean water, contains a high amount of dissolved salt. To be specific, about 3.5 percent of the weight of seawater comes from dissolved salts, mostly sodium chloride. That may not sound like a lot, but it is far more salt than your body can safely process. When you drink salt water, your body has to get rid of the extra salt somehow. This task falls to your kidneys, which work by filtering waste from your blood and removing it through urine. But there's a catch: your kidneys can only produce urine that is less salty than your blood. They simply can’t produce urine that is saltier than the fluids inside your body.
This creates a serious problem. Since seawater contains more salt than your kidneys can remove, your body ends up pulling water out of your cells to help dilute the salt. This leads to dehydration. For every cup of salt water you drink, your body actually loses more water than it gains. If you keep drinking it, the process continues, drawing more water out of your cells, and eventually causing serious damage or death from dehydration.
Now, you may wonder why some animals seem to have no problem drinking salt water. The answer lies in evolution. Some marine animals, like sea birds and marine mammals, have developed special adaptations that humans do not have. For instance, sea birds such as gulls, albatrosses, and penguins have special glands located near their eyes or beaks that remove salt from the water they consume. These salt glands are so efficient that the birds can drink seawater and excrete the excess salt through their nostrils or beaks.
Similarly, marine mammals like whales, seals, and dolphins live entirely in the ocean and have developed kidneys that are far better at handling salt. Their kidneys are large and produce highly concentrated urine that can effectively eliminate salt with much less water loss. This adaptation allows them to survive in an environment where fresh water is nearly nonexistent.
Humans, on the other hand, have not evolved these traits. Our ancestors mostly lived on land and had access to rivers, lakes, and rainfall for drinking water. Because of this, our bodies are specialized for processing fresh water, and salt water throws that system into chaos.
In addition to the physical consequences, drinking salt water can also create a false sense of hydration. You may feel like you’re doing something helpful by drinking water when you’re thirsty, but salt water actually makes things worse. Your mouth might feel moist for a moment, but soon your body starts to suffer from the internal effects of dehydration. People who are stranded at sea are strongly advised not to drink ocean water, even if they’re very thirsty, because it speeds up the dehydration process.
To make salt water drinkable, we would need to remove the salt through a process called desalination. This is done in some parts of the world where fresh water is scarce, but it requires expensive equipment and a lot of energy. That’s why it’s not a practical solution for most situations or individuals.
In conclusion, humans cannot drink salt water because our bodies are not built to handle the high salt content. Doing so not only fails to quench thirst, but it also harms your body by making you lose more water. While some animals have evolved to thrive in salty environments, we depend on fresh water to survive. If you're ever in a survival situation, remember: salt water is never the answer to thirst.
