Drinking water while standing makes your uterus weak: Is it true?

Hyderabad: A post advising women not to drink water while standing has gone viral on social media.

The viral post reads, “Actually drinking large amount of water is as such harmful but yes the way of drinking it might make it harmful, especially for females. Females should avoid drinking water directly from the bottle and in standing position because in such manner the force of the drunk water is directly exerted in the uterus of the female and it makes the uterus weak in the long run (sic).”

It further says drinking water from a glass is better than drinking directly from a bottle. “Specially if the water is directly taken from the bottle, then its amount is less altered as compared to when we safe water from a glass and there is less force when we drink from a glass. So female should try to drink water from a glass and should be sitting while drinking (sic),” the post adds.

FACT CHECK

NewsMeter could not find any evidence to back the claim.

We contacted our expert, Dr. Fawad Ali (General Medicine) and a diabetic specialist from John Hopkins University, USA to debunk the viral claim.

Regarding the claim that drinking water while standing can cause kidney or liver disease or put stress on the uterus, he said the claim is baseless and unscientific. “While such claims have been floating around the internet, there is no study to substantiate them,” Dr. Ali said.

He explained, “Anything you eat or drink travels through the food pipe to the stomach, and then the intestine where it gets absorbed. Nothing can go to the kidneys or joints directly. The water flows with blood and reaches all parts of the body.”

However, posture does matter when it comes to food. “Science explains that while walking or standing, the blood circulation in our bodies is automatically diverted towards the arms and the limbs, so the amount of blood reaching our digestive system is not enough to digest the food,” added Dr. Ali.

The speed at which water is gulped down may matter. Drinking a lot of water very fast could lead to water accumulation or bloating in the stomach. But even here, there is no modern study to back these claims.