Final answer:
Drinking large amounts of ocean salt water leads to cells losing water and becoming dehydrated due to osmotic pressure, potentially causing cell shrinkage and dysfunction. The kidneys struggle to manage the excess salts, which worsens dehydration and can create serious health issues.
Step-by-step explanation:
Drinking large quantities of ocean salt water can have a detrimental effect on cellular health because of osmotic pressure. When seawater, which has a higher osmolarity than body fluids, is ingested, it creates a hypertonic environment for your cells. Water will move out of the cells to the extracellular space in an attempt to dilute the excess salt in the bloodstream, due to the process of osmosis. This leads to dehydration at the cellular level, making you feel even thirstier despite drinking water. Severe cases can lead to cell shrinkage, dysfunction, and even eventual death if not remedied by intake of freshwater and/or medical attention.
Our kidneys are adept at managing hypotonic solutions, which are solutions with lower osmolarity than our bodily fluids, by excreting the excess water. However, they are overwhelmed when dealing with hypertonic solutions like salt water, as they cannot excrete the excess salt fast enough to maintain homeostasis. Continuous consumption of salt water can lead to a buildup of salts in the body, exacerbating dehydration and causing serious health issues.
Drinking large quantities of ocean saltwater would have detrimental effects on your cells. The high osmolarity of seawater, which means it has a higher concentration of solutes like salt compared to the fluids in your body, would cause osmosis to occur. Osmosis is the movement of water from an area of lower solute concentration to an area of higher solute concentration across a semi-permeable membrane, such as the cell membrane. When you drink saltwater, the high concentration of salt in the seawater would draw water out of your cells, leading to dehydration and potentially cell death.
Our bodies are generally better equipped to handle hypotonic solutions, which have a lower solute concentration than our bodily fluids. In this case, our kidneys can process the excess water and excrete it as urine. However, drinking large quantities of hypertonic solutions, like saltwater, can overwhelm the body's ability to regulate water balance and cause harm to the cells.