Importance Of Electrolytes In The Human Body – The Body contains many ions, or electrolytes, that perform various functions. Some ions help in the transmission of electrical signals along cell membranes in neurons and muscles. Some ions help stabilize protein structures in enzymes. Others help in the release of hormones from the endocrine glands. All the ions in the plasma contribute to the osmotic balance that controls the movement of water between cells and their surroundings.
Electrolytes in living systems include sodium, Potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, calcium, phosphate, magnesium, copper, zinc, iron, manganese, molybdenum, copper, and chromium. In terms of body function, six electrolytes are most important: sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, calcium, and phosphate.
Importance Of Electrolytes In The Human Body
These six ions contribute to nerve excitability, endocrine secretion, membrane permeability, buffering body fluids, and controlling fluid movement between compartments. These ions enter the body through the stomach. More than 90 percent of the calcium and phosphate that enters the body is deposited in the bones and teeth, with the bone serving as a reservoir for these ions. In the event that calcium and phosphate are needed for other functions, bone marrow can be broken down to supply Blood and other tissues with these minerals. Phosphate is a common occurrence of nucleic acids; therefore, the blood level of phosphate will increase whenever nucleic acids are broken down.
Best Electrolyte Powders Of 2023 To Keep You Hydrated
Excretion of the ion occurs mainly through the kidneys, with a small amount lost in sweat and feces. Excessive sweating can cause significant losses, especially of sodium and chloride. Excessive vomiting or diarrhea causes loss of chloride and bicarbonate ions. Adjustments in respiratory and renal functions allow the body to regulate the levels of these ions in the ECF.
Table 26.1 lists the blood plasma, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and urine values for the six ions determined in this section. In the clinical setting, sodium, potassium, and chloride are usually tested in a urine sample. In contrast, the analysis of calcium and phosphate requires the collection of urine within 24 hours, because the excretion of these ions can vary greatly during the day. Urine cultures indicate the rate of excretion of these ions. Bicarbonate is the least common ion excreted in the urine; instead, it is stored by the kidneys for use in the body’s metabolism.
Sodium is the major cation of the extracellular fluid. It is responsible for half of the osmotic pressure gradient that exists between the interior of the cells and the surrounding environment. People who eat a Western diet, which is very high in NaCl, regularly take in 130 to 160 mmol/day of sodium, but people need only 1 to 2 mmol/day. This excess sodium appears to be a major factor in hypertension (high blood pressure) in some people. Excretion of sodium is done mainly by the kidneys. Sodium is freely filtered through the glomerular capillaries of the kidney, and although most of the filtered sodium is reabsorbed in the proximal convoluted tubule, some remains in the filtrate and urine, and is usually excreted.
Hyponatremia is a lower-than-normal concentration of sodium, usually associated with excess water retention in the body, which reduces sodium. The total loss of sodium may be due to the reduction of this ion as well as its continued excretion in the urine. Abnormal loss of sodium from the body can result in several conditions, including excessive sweating, vomiting, or diarrhea; use diuretics; excessive production of urine, which can occur in diabetes; and acidosis, either metabolic acidosis or diabetic ketoacidosis.
What Are Electrolytes, And Why Does The Human Body Need Them?
Low blood sodium can occur due to an imbalance of sodium in one of the body’s other stores, such as IF, or from sodium depletion due to fluid retention associated with edema or congestive heart failure. At the cellular level, hyponatremia results in increased water entry into cells by osmosis, because the concentration of solutes within the cell exceeds the concentration of solutes in the reduced ECF. Excess water causes swelling of the cells; swelling of red blood cells—reducing their oxygen-carrying capacity and making them too large to fit through capillaries—as well as swelling of neurons in the brain can cause brain damage or death.
Hypernatremia is an abnormal increase in blood sodium. It can result in the loss of water from the blood, causing hemoconcentration of all blood components. This can lead to neuromuscular irritability, convulsions, CNS lethargy, and coma. Hormonal imbalances involving ADH and aldosterone can also result in higher-than-normal sodium values.
Potassium is the major intracellular cation. It helps to establish the resting membrane potential in neurons and muscle fibers after membrane depolarization and action potential. Unlike sodium, potassium has a slightly lower osmotic pressure. The low levels of potassium in the blood and CSF are caused by the sodium-potassium pumps in the cell membranes, which maintain normal potassium concentration gradients between the ICF and ECF. The recommended daily intake of potassium is 4700 mg. Potassium is excreted, both actively and partially, through the renal tubules, especially the distal convoluted tubule and collecting ducts. Potassium participates in the exchange with sodium in the renal tubules under the influence of aldosterone, which also depends on the basolateral sodium-potassium pump.
Hypokalemia is a low level of potassium in the blood. Similar to the situation with hyponatremia, hypokalemia can occur due to a complete reduction of potassium in the body or a reduction of potassium in the blood due to redistribution of potassium. A complete loss of potassium can result from a lack of nutrition, often related to hunger. It can also come from vomiting, diarrhea, or alkalosis. Hypokalemia can cause metabolic acidosis, CNS disturbances, and cardiac arrhythmias.
Body Fluids And Fluid Compartments
Some insulin-dependent diabetic patients experience a reduction in blood potassium from the redistribution of potassium. When insulin is used and glucose is absorbed by the cells, potassium passes through the cell membrane together with glucose, reducing the amount of potassium in the blood and IF, which can cause hyperpolarization of the cell membranes of the neurons, reducing their responses to stimuli.
Hyperkalemia, high blood potassium, can affect the function of skeletal muscles, nerves, and the heart. Hyperkalemia can result from excess potassium intake. In such cases, potassium from the blood ends up in the ECF in abnormal amounts. This can result in partial depolarization (excitation) of the plasma membrane of skeletal muscle fibers, neurons, and cardiac cells, and can also lead to the inability of cells to recover. For the heart, this means that it will not rest after bursting, and will successfully “catch” and stop pumping blood, which kills within minutes. Because of its effects on the nervous system, a person with hyperkalemia may also exhibit mental confusion, numbness, and weakness of the respiratory muscles.
Chloride is the most important extracellular anion. Chloride contributes greatly to the osmotic pressure gradient between ICF and ECF, and plays an important role in maintaining proper hydration. Chloride works to balance the cations in the ECF, maintaining the electrical neutrality of this water. The mechanisms of secretion and reabsorption of chloride ions in the renal system follow those of sodium ions.
Hypochloremia, or lower-than-normal blood chloride levels, can occur due to impaired renal tubular absorption. Vomiting, diarrhea, and metabolic acidosis can cause hypochloremia. Hyperchloremia, or higher-than-normal blood chloride levels, can occur due to dehydration, excessive intake of dietary salt (NaCl) or seawater ingestion, aspirin addiction, heart failure, and genetics, chronic lung disease, cystic fibrosis. In people with cystic fibrosis, chloride levels in sweat are two to five times higher than normal levels, and sweat analysis is often used in the diagnosis of the disease.
Electrolytes And Nonelectrolytes
Watch this video for an explanation of how seawater affects humans. What does drinking sea water do for the body?
Bicarbonate is the second most abundant anion in blood. Its main function is to maintain your body’s acid-base balance by being part of the buffer system. This work will be discussed in a separate section.
) and water, two molecules produced at the end of aerobic metabolism. Only a small fraction of CO
The bidirectional arrows show that the process can go in either direction, depending on the number of reactions and products. Carbon dioxide is produced in large quantities in tissues with a high metabolic rate. Carbon dioxide is converted to bicarbonate in the cytoplasm of red blood cells through the action of an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase. Bicarbonate is carried in the blood. Once in the lungs, the process reverses, and CO
What Are Electrolytes And Why Are They Important?
About two kilograms of calcium in your body is tied up in bone, which gives strength to the bone and serves as a reservoir for storing calcium and its salts in other tissues. Teeth also have a lot of calcium in them. More than half of blood calcium is bound to proteins, leaving the rest in its ionized form. Calcium ions, Ca
, required for muscle contraction, enzyme activity,
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