Dear Hearts, did you read about the lady in California who died last week from water intoxication?

"Water intoxication?" exclaimed my neighbor. "What the heck is water intoxication??"

Frankly, the only people I've ever heard about who died of water intoxication were found floating in the middle of the ocean. I think they called it drowning.

Of course, one could make a good case for stupidity, too. This woman entered a contest sponsored by a radio station to see who could drink the most water without going to the bathroom. The prize: a Nintendo game called Wii. The come-on ad read "Hold your Wee for a Wii."

Of all the dumb things attempted by dumb people this has to be the dumbest.

If I remember correctly this woman drank something like two gallons in two hours without a bathroom break. I drink 8 ounces of water and I'm hunting a toilet somewhere. And anybody who's ever been in a car with a woman for more than three miles knows that it doesn't matter that she went before she left home, she has to go again…and right now!

What was this woman thinking? As I said, everybody knows a woman's bladder is the size of a pea but evidently she thought hers was a good bit larger than the average gal's so she had high hopes of winning.

And she might have, had she not become deathly ill on the way home from work the afternoon of the contest. She called a friend, complained of a headache and died within the hour. So, as it turns out her bladder was smaller than she'd thought but, on the other hand, it was obviously bigger than her brain.

Whether or not she ever relieved herself before she died nobody knows. There is talk now of her family suing the radio station for manslaughter which adds more proof to my contention that Americans is going to the dogs. She was an adult. She entered the contest. She drank the water. She couldn't hold it. She's responsible. Case closed.

But then I've been telling people for years that water is bad for you. hate the stuff. And everywhere you go today you run into some health nut who has a water bottle permanently affixed to his hand. Maybe they wear catheters. I don't know.

I have it on good authority that water can indeed be detrimental to your health. Dr. Judith Reichman, medical contributor for the Today Show was asked recently if it were essential to one's good health to drink eight glasses of water a day.

"Certainly not," she said. "People have gone overboard with [water consumption]. Besides, our bodies have a built-in way of controlling how much liquid we need in a day's time. It's called thirst!"

Imagine that.

"There is no medical evidence to support all this water drinking," said Dr. Reichman. "It will not curb your hunger, 'flush' away toxins, or make your skin look moist and dewy."

"In fact," she continued, "there are good reasons not to force yourself to drink too much water. If you take in more water than your kidneys can process, you risk dilution of electolytes and water intoxication, causing confusion and coma."

Probably the biggest argument for curbing the current water craze is in Dr. Reichman's last statement.

"Over-hydration can lead to wetting accidents as your overfilled bladder contracts before you reach the bathroom." Or, to put it like my first grade teacher did, "My Lord, now you've gone and wet yer britches!"

Did that poor lady in California really not know this?? When your bladder's full, you empty it. Pretty simple. I mean, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

I do, and I am, right now. Nintendos and bottled water be damned. My mama didn't raise no fool