Symptoms of hyponatremia can include nausea and vomiting, loss of energy and confusion. Serious hyponatremia can cause seizures, coma and even death.
Hyponatremia occurs when your blood sodium level goes below 135 mEq/L. When the sodium level in your blood is too low, extra water goes into your cells and makes them swell. This swelling can be dangerous especially in the brain, since the brain cannot expand past the skull.
In hyponatremia, the level of sodium in blood is too low. A low sodium level has many causes, including consumption of too many fluids, kidney failure, heart failure, cirrhosis, and use of diuretics. Symptoms result from brain dysfunction.
Having low sodium blood levels can negatively impact your health. Intuitively, it makes sense to think that the best way to prevent this condition would be to eat more salt, but oftentimes, diet has nothing to do with developing hyponatremia.
With treatment, many people recover fully from hyponatremia. Your healthcare provider can help even if you have long-term hyponatremia. Older adults and people who are in the hospital for a long time may have worse outcomes.
Drink sports drinks or electrolyte solutions
If you have low sodium levels due to excessive sweating or dehydration, sports drinks or electrolyte solutions may help increase your sodium levels.
Options include: Intravenous fluids. Your doctor may recommend IV sodium solution to slowly raise the sodium levels in your blood. This requires a stay in the hospital for frequent monitoring of sodium levels as too rapid of a correction is dangerous.
Drinking excessive amounts of water can cause low sodium by overwhelming the kidneys' ability to excrete water. Because you lose sodium through sweat, drinking too much water during endurance activities, such as marathons and triathlons, can also dilute the sodium content of your blood.
In the presence of low extracellular osmolality, cells will swell if the adaptation mechanisms involved in the cell volume maintenance are inadequate. The most dramatic effects of hyponatremia on the brain are seen when serum sodium concentration decreases in a short period, allowing little or no adaptation.
Consume foods rich in sodium
One way to do it is to eat sodium-rich foods. Eating cheese, dairy products, seafood, beets, carrots, and celery are some of the best foods to eat if you want to include more sodium-rich foods in your diet.
The medical team will restore the sodium level over the course of several hours or days, depending on the severity of your condition.
Symptoms of hyponatremia can include nausea and vomiting, loss of energy and confusion. Serious hyponatremia can cause seizures, coma and even death.
If left untreated or inadequately treated, patients with hyponatremia can develop rhabdomyolysis, altered mental status, seizures, and even coma. Rapid correction of chronic hyponatremia (greater than 10 mEq/L to 12 mEq/L of sodium in 24 hrs) can lead to osmotic demyelination syndrome.
Hyponatremia is a condition that occurs when the sodium in your blood falls below the normal range of 135–145 mEq/L. In severe cases, low sodium levels in the body can lead to muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting and dizziness. Eventually, lack of salt can lead to shock, coma and death.
Acute hyponatremia can lead to much more severe complications such as cerebral edema, brain disease, herniation of the brain, cardiopulmonary arrest, seizure, coma and even death.
In many hospital laboratories 160 mEq/L is chosen as the upper critical value. The evidence of this study suggests that sodium in the range of 155-160 mEq/L is associated with high risk of death and that 155 mEq/L rather than 160 mEq/L might be more suitable as the upper critical level. Disclaimer.
Alcohol is a diuretic and causes you to lose water and sodium in the urine. Drinking heavily and vomiting results in sodium loss. No caffeine – Caffeine is also a diuretic. In fact, drinking 4 cups of coffee can cause you to lose 1200 mg of sodium – that's your entire daily recommended sodium intake lost all in one go!
Williams says that in about one-third of people with normal blood pressure, eating a high-salt diet causes their blood pressure to rise. In this scenario, salt is dangerous in part because it leads the body to retain water. So drinking even more water will only exacerbate the situation, not alleviate it.
Drinking more water will help neutralize the sodium and rehydrate the cells throughout your body. If you are feeling thirsty or nauseated or have diarrhea or stomach cramps, too much sodium could be the culprit.
Tolvaptan (Samsca) comes as a tablet to take by mouth. It is usually taken once a day with or without food for no longer than 30 days. At the beginning of your treatment, you will be given tolvaptan (Samsca) at a regularly scheduled time in the hospital.
Randomized studies have shown that a low-sodium diet can have an enormous impact on blood pressure in patients with resistant hypertension. These patients can expect as much as a 20 mmHg to 30 mmHg reduction in blood pressure from a low-sodium diet alone.
The body needs a small amount of sodium to function, but most Americans consume too much sodium. High sodium consumption can raise blood pressure, and high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Most of the sodium we consume is in the form of salt.