Q: Can You Drink Sterile Water? (IS IT SAFE?)

Jump To A Section!

1. Sterile water is fluid used for irrigation in medical procedures.

2. Sterile water for medical purposes is not the same thing as water that has been sterilized by boiling.

3. Many patients are prescribed sterile water to drink or to use for mixing or taking medications, especially when they are very ill.

4. Do not give babies or children sterile water to drink unless advised by a medical professional to do so.

5. Sterile water doesn’t contain any minerals or nutrients that are found in regular tap water.

6. Sterile water will not replace electrolytes in your body when you’re dehydrated.

Conclusion

BONUS VIDEO!

Have you ever encountered a bottle of sterile water for medical purposes?

Do you know what sterile water is and what it’s used for?

Can you drink sterile water?

***NOTE: Take control of how much water you are consuming per day with one of these personal water filter bottles from LifeStraw. It's the easiest way to filter and track the amount of water you are drinking on a daily basis.

If you’ve ever seen sterile water and wondered if it’s possible to ingest it, we’ve got all the information you’re looking for here. This is a unique type of water that not everyone comes into contact with regularly, so if you’ve seen it, you probably know it. However, just because you know what it looks like doesn’t mean you know what it’s used for or if it’s drinkable, so be sure to check out the information we have listed below to help you better understand.

But what if you don’t know what it looks like? What if you’ve never seen it before in your life? What is sterile water, anyway?

Simply put, sterile water is a type of water used in medical procedures. It’s often used for flushing IV lines but it can have other medical purposes as well, and it may even be prescribed for some types of illnesses or for those who have very advanced diabetes.

Sterile water often comes in small bottles that have labels printed on the side. These labels let you know how much water is in each bottle as well as any warnings or uses you need to know about the water.

All in all, this type of water is quite a lot different from most other bottled waters you may encounter in your lifetime. To learn more and to find out if it’s really okay to drink it, read the information we have put together for you below.

Facts about Sterile Water

Sterile water is a little different than filtered water or even water that has been boiled. In order to better understand whether or not you can drink this water, you should first educate yourself about sterile water in general. Below are some important facts to keep in mind.

1. Sterile water is fluid used for irrigation in medical procedures.

It doesn’t have any contaminants or pollutants and is safe for use in all medical situations. For this reason, it’s usually kept on hand in hospitals and in some other medical buildings, and it is often used during both routine procedures and more serious and invasive ones as well. It can even be used to mix up medications that are used for hospital patients, especially if that patient has a compromised immune system due to illness or surgery.

2. Sterile water for medical purposes is not the same thing as water that has been sterilized by boiling.

When you boil water, it’s not possible to remove all of the contaminants from it. However, unless the water is very badly polluted already, boiling it is usually more than enough to make it potable for adult humans (and animals). This is why, when the water in a city is known to be polluted, residents are advised to boil it for a while until it gets back to normal treatment. Sterile water for medical purposes has undergone a very different treatment that leaves it pure and free from all contaminants.

3. Many patients are prescribed sterile water to drink or to use for mixing or taking medications, especially when they are very ill.

For this reason, if you find bottles of sterile water in someone else’s house, you should always assume they were prescribed by a medical professional and are not meant for regular drinking. Treat them as you would medication given to another person and do not drink them or use them for yourself. It can be unsafe for some patients to go without sterile water, and it may be unsafe for you to drink it, too.

4. Do not give babies or children sterile water to drink unless advised by a medical professional to do so.

This type of water has a different pH balance than regular water and it may cause the minerals and nutrients in your child’s body to get out of whack, especially if they drink a lot of it. This is also a good reason why you should avoid drinking it yourself, unless you’re told to do so by a doctor.

5. Sterile water doesn’t contain any minerals or nutrients that are found in regular tap water.

If you do have to drink it—or if you choose to for any reason—make sure you’re getting those minerals from other healthy sources. Regular water may contain a lot of contaminants, but it’s also got substances in it that we need as humans. This is why drinking tap water can actually be ideal for many people.

6. Sterile water will not replace electrolytes in your body when you’re dehydrated.

Regular tap water has enough electrolytes in it to help you replace what you lose from sweating throughout the day, but sterile water isn’t designed for this purpose. Therefore, it’s best to avoid it when you’ve been working hard or working out.

Conclusion

So are there any real benefits you can get from drinking this type of water? As you can see, there are a lot of precautions to keep in mind when your’e going to drink this type of water, and you may quickly find that it’s not worth it to ingest this water when you have other options available. So why would anyone ever consider drinking it in the first place? Are there reason why someone might want to have sterile water to drink?

In short, there aren’t a lot of health benefits to get from drinking sterile water. You can boil water at home and remove enough impurities from most water sources to make it safe enough for an adult to drink. However, sterile water that comes in bottles and is used for medical purposes may be ideal for some people who have very serious health concerns. Your doctor may prescribe this type of water for you to drink if you’re very sick, have a compromised immune system, or have severe allergic reactions to metals often found in other types of water.

In other instances, some hospitals require their patients and employees to drink sterile water. This is not a common practice at all, but it is true of some locations.

In the end, however, if you’re just looking for the healthiest type of water you can drink on a day to day basis, it’s much better to stick with drinking filtered water that you can buy or filter in your own home than it is to rely on medical sterile water. And when all else fails, just boil your tap water—you’ll be left with clean water that’s safe to drink as soon as it cools down!

Additional Research:

https://www.drugs.com/pro/sterile-water-for-irrigation.html

https://www.leaf.tv/articles/what-is-the-difference-between-distilled-sterile-water/

https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=f4284eb6-e553-46d4-90d8-efc80a90a480&type=display