Distilled water is devoid of any solutes. It contains no additional gases, minerals, or contaminants. Would it be right to give a person an IV (intravenous) therapy of distilled water?

Question

frostbite · Answer

some key word woulds be physiological concentrations, osmosis and hypotonic solution.

anonymous · Answer

would it cause the cells to shrivel or explode??

frostbite · Answer

What would you guess? If you have distilled water do you then have a high or low concentration of water?

anonymous · Answer

high i guess

frostbite · Answer

It sure is. So water will diffuse inside the cells, so what happens?

anonymous · Answer

explodee??!!

frostbite · Answer

In theory they can if there is nothing to prevent it... like cell walls in plant cells.

anonymous · Answer

so is it no the iv will be hypertonic compared to the cell cytoplasm causing the cell to explode