Soy sauce is known for its salty goodness, but too much salt can sometimes be a bad thing. A 19-year-old male recently proved this when he consumed a full quart of soy sauce and almost immediately landed himself in a coma. Things could be worse, however, as doctors are noting the young man nearly died.
Having too much salt in the bloodstream actually has a name. The hard-to-pronounce hypernatremia is actually really scary. According to Fox News, when there is too much salt in a person’s body, the body responds by taking water out of the brain and sending it to various body parts in order to balance out the salt to water ratio. This is not really a good thing, since a person’s brain needs lots of water and can “shrink and bleed” without enough water in the brain.
The young man drank too much soy sauce and later had a seizure. Luckily, his friends were smart enough to take him to the emergency room, where doctors flushed as much salt out of his system that they could. After five hours, the young man’s sodium levels had returned to normal, but he was still in a coma for three days. Because of the cognizance of the young man’s friends and the quick work of the doctor’s involved, the 19-year-old was able to wake up on his own and return to his college curriculum. I’m sure this is the sort of foolish behavior his friends will tease him about in the future, but hopefully, it will also give the young man an awareness of when bets are in good fun and when his health is actually on the line.
