Column: What if drinking water is turning us into a nation of risk-taking people?

I’d always wanted to know and the two easiest ways to find out were to give blood or be involved in an accident where I needed a transfusion. I opted for the former.

Since then I have returned as soon as I can. They have nearly had a gallon from me now and they seem to put it to good use.

This latest visit was the first one when I didn’t get told off by one of the nurses. Before that they always said I don’t drink enough water.

The machine beeps if your blood flow rate drops too low and that happened to me every time. I didn’t see that as a bad thing. If my body tries to slow down the rate at which it loses blood, I see that as a smart bit of evolution.

They say it’s because I don’t drink enough water.

This time I drank loads of water. The day before and the day of donation I had three litres of water. I missed being told off by a strict nurse but that’s an issue for me and my therapist to get into. My worry here is what the water will do to me.

As soon as I’d given blood I was sat reading some news stories and spotted a worrying one about salmon. Scientists have found that the amounts of anti-anxiety drugs in our water has made salmon more reckless.

Salmon already seem pretty brave. I certainly wouldn’t go back to where I was from to breed.

These are creatures that swim upstream. That’s hardcore. I don’t even like riding my back into an oncoming breeze but they swim against the flow of water for so long, when they finally finish their journey, they die. How much more reckless could you get?

The worry is that the same effect could be happening to us. Obviously we need a much larger dose of any drug to be affected by it than a little salmon but what if drinking water is turning us into risk-taking people?

After drinking six litres in two days and having less blood at the end of that to dilute it, I worry that I am at risk. I suppose the fact that I am worried is a good sign that I don’t have a lot of anti-anxiety medication in my system.

But if water makes people take risks, more people will have accidents, so it’s a good job I donated blood.