i thought about this for quite a while and looked up information online. i wasn't able to find much really except that there's nothing to the claim that drinking water when you're overheated will kill you. i do think i might have found at least part of the origin of this myth though. when you are working with horses it's generally considered bad to give very cold water to a severely overheated horse. i don't know all the logic behind it but it's something that's advised against it may cause colic or some such. horses can be surprisingly delicate in certain respects. so that's my theory about the origin of this belief i fully admit i may be wrong. i'd love to get my hands on an old medical text! also i did see a lot of "advice" among some new age healing proponents that cold water was either the worst thing for you or the best thing for you.
c. 1900 even doctors believed one could die from "drinking cold water while overheated. " any basis for this belief? . i work for our local historical society and recently organized a batch of death certificates c. 1900. one person was listed as having died from "drinking cold water while overheated. " i know that this is an old-time folk belief in many cultures but did not realize that doctors had also subscribed to the idea. is there any physiological basis for this belief? thanks for any input.