Compare his car engine oil below to brand new oil and discuss why car engines need oil filters.

Mechanics call oil the life "blood" of a car. Just like a car needs its oil filtered, we need our blood filtered. 

How do you think our body filters out the waste in our blood? 

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Directions: 

Step #1: Read the article and annotate

Step #2: Answer the three questions below the article in your medical journal. 

No Wee And You Get a Wii

A national game show recently made headlines when a contestant tragically passed away after participating in an extreme challenge. The game involved drinking large amounts of water within a short period while being prohibited from urinating. The goal was to see who could hold out the longest without using the bathroom. The participate who held the longest would win a Nintendo Wii gaming system. 

After several hours, one contestant, despite drinking nearly four liters of water, began to experience severe discomfort. They complained of feeling lightheaded, nauseous, and had intense headaches. Their hands and feet were swelling, and they mentioned feeling confused and disoriented. Though the show’s staff didn’t initially recognize the seriousness of the situation, it soon became clear something was very wrong. The contestant collapsed and was rushed to the hospital, where they died a few hours later.

Doctors later explained that the contestant had died from a condition called hyponatremia. This occurs when excessive water intake dilutes the sodium levels in the bloodstream, disrupting the balance of fluids in the body. Normally, the kidneys would remove excess water through urine, maintaining the body’s fluid balance. However, because the contestant wasn’t allowed to urinate, their kidneys couldn’t release the excess water. This led to a dangerous situation where water began to move into the body’s cells by osmosis, including those in the brain.

As water began entering the cells, the cells swelled up. Swelling in the brain caused the contestant’s confusion and headache, and eventually led to brain damage, a coma and eventually death. The kidneys, overwhelmed by the excess water, were unable to maintain the body’s electrolyte balance, particularly the levels of sodium necessary to prevent this kind of cellular swelling.

This tragic incident highlights the critical role of the excretory system in regulating fluid and electrolyte balance, as well as the dangers of disrupting this balance through extreme behaviors like those encouraged by the game show.

Short Response Questions:

1. The contestant was unable to urinate during the challenge. Explain how the excretory system, particularly the kidneys, normally helps the body maintain a balance of water and electrolytes, and why this process failed in the contestant's case.

2. How did osmosis contribute to the contestant's symptoms, including swelling in the brain? Use your knowledge of water movement and electrolyte balance to explain the effects on the cells.

3. Sodium plays an important role in preventing cells from swelling due to osmosis. Explain why the dilution of sodium in the contestant’s blood caused water to enter the cells, and how this led to severe health consequences.