Is a sodium level of 128 still considered low?
Your Sodium value of 128 mEq/L is too low. A good Sodium is usually between 135 and 145 mEq/L. Increase your Sodium by 7 mEq/L to be within normal range. Your sodium levels may get too low if you drink too much water in a short amount of time.
What are the dangers of low sodium levels?
Per the Mayo Clinic, people with hyponatremia can experience symptoms that include:
- Nausea and vomiting
- Seizures
- Loss of consciousness
- Headache
- Muscle weakness and spasms
- Restlessness
- Irritability
- Fatigue
What to do if you have low sodium levels?
You may also need one or more of the following:
- Intravenous (IV) fluid - Sodium solutions may be given through your vein to increase the amount of sodium in your blood. ...
- Sodium retaining medicines: These medicines help your kidneys get rid of large amounts of urine. ...
- Dialysis: If your kidneys are not working well you may need to have dialysis to decrease the extra water in your body.
What are the side effects of low sodium levels?
Risk factors for low sodium include:
- Advanced age
- Excessive exercise, particularly outdoors in hot weather
- Hot climate
- Kidney disease
- Liver failure
- Medication side effects
What does 126 sodium level mean?
A normal blood sodium level is between 135 and 145 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L). Hyponatremia occurs when the sodium in your blood falls below 135 mEq/L. Many possible conditions and lifestyle factors can lead to hyponatremia, including: Certain medications.
Is 125 sodium level dangerous?
The definition of a low sodium level is below 135 milliequivalents per liter (meq/l). Severe hyponatremia occurs when levels drop below 125 meq/l. Health issues arising from extremely low sodium levels may be fatal.
What is a critical sodium level?
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.
Can a person recover from low sodium levels?
Hyponatremia can result from multiple diseases that often are affecting the lungs, liver or brain, heart problems like congestive heart failure, or medications. Most people recover fully with their doctor's help.
How do you bring up your sodium?
TreatmentIntravenous fluids. Your doctor may recommend IV sodium solution to slowly raise the sodium levels in your blood. ... Medications. You may take medications to manage the signs and symptoms of hyponatremia, such as headaches, nausea and seizures.
What should I eat if my sodium is low?
Choose options like:Fresh or frozen fish or shellfish.Chicken or turkey breast without skin or marinade.Lean cuts of beef or pork.Unsalted nuts and seeds.Dried beans, peas, and lentils — like black beans and garbanzo beans (chickpeas)More items...•
How serious is a sodium level of 129?
Some are mild, but others can be serious and even life-threatening. How low is too low? Your blood sodium level is normal if it's 135 to 145 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L). If it's below 135 mEq/L, it's hyponatremia.
How fast can you correct sodium?
Goal rate of sodium correction is 6 to 8 mEq/L in 24 hours, 12 to 14 mEq/L in 48 hours. Use hypertonic saline for severe symptomatic hyponatremia.
How long does it take to correct sodium levels?
The rate of sodium correction should be 6 to 12 mEq per L in the first 24 hours and 18 mEq per L or less in 48 hours. An increase of 4 to 6 mEq per L is usually sufficient to reduce symptoms of acute hyponatremia.
When should you go to the hospital for low sodium?
Seek emergency care for anyone who develops severe signs and symptoms of hyponatremia, such as nausea and vomiting, confusion, seizures, or lost consciousness. Call your doctor if you know you are at risk of hyponatremia and are experiencing nausea, headaches, cramping or weakness.
Will eating salt help hyponatremia?
In elderly patients with a diet poor in protein and sodium, hyponatremia may be worsened by their low solute intake. The kidney's need to excrete solutes aids in water excretion. An increase in dietary protein and salt can help improve water excretion.
Who is most at risk for sodium deficiency?
Low blood sodium is common in older adults, especially those who are hospitalized or living in long-term care facilities. Signs and symptoms of hyponatremia can include altered personality, lethargy and confusion. Severe hyponatremia can cause seizures, coma and even death.
What happens if your sodium level is too low?
If the sodium levels in your blood get too low, you could develop a dangerous condition called hyponatremia. Sodium regulates the amount of water in your cells, so low levels of sodium causes your cells to swell with extra water. This can lead to a variety of symptoms, including nausea, headaches, fatigue, confusion, muscle weakness, seizures, ...
Why is my sodium level so low?
Causes. Your sodium levels may get too low if you drink too much water in a short amount of time. This sometimes happens to athletes who lose sodium through sweating while drinking too much water during an event like a marathon or triathlon. Some medications and problems with the heart, kidneys, and liver can also affect your sodium levels.
Is sodium a mineral?
Sodium is an essential mineral that plays a role in many body functions. Having too much or too little sodium in the blood can affect your health and lead to dangerous medical issues.
What does it mean when your sodium level is low?
If your sodium levels drop below 135 mmol per L, it's called hyponatremia. In severe cases, low sodium levels can cause neurological symptoms, brain damage and even death if left untreated. Here's a look at some of the dangers ...
Why is hyponatremia more severe in children?
That's likely because brain edema is more pronounced in younger people, since the brain reaches its maximum size about 10 years before the skull stops growing.
What causes hyponatremia in people?
Causes of acute hyponatremia can include excessive water intake (often in people with severe mental illness or developmental disability), use of the recreational drug ecstasy, receiving hypotonic fluid during surgery or extreme physical activity such as running a marathon, per Merck Manuals.
Is hyponatremia life threatening?
According to a January 2018 article in Kidney International Reports, that's why even severe cases of chronic hyponatremia aren't usually life-threatening. Advertisement. Still, patients with chronic hyponatremia often fare worse than other patients. "It's a bad prognostic sign," Dr. Weiner says.
Is low sodium bad for your brain?
Low Sodium Levels Are Dangerous for Your Brain. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, hyponatremia is most dangerous when the sodium level in the blood drops significantly in less than 48 hours (called acute hyponatremia).
Is hyponatremia dangerous?
A rapid decline in sodium levels is particularly dangerous to your brain. Hyponatremia causes water to move out of the bloodstream and into tissue cells, causing them to expand. While most of the tissue in your body can accommodate this ...
Can you get hyponatremia from sweating?
The condition can also occur from diarrhea, sweating or vomiting. Advertisement. In contrast, when the sodium level falls gradually over days or weeks (chronic hyponatremia), your body has time to make adjustments, so you may only experience mild symptoms.
Why is sodium bad for you?
As your sodium level starts dropping, you’ll begin to feel very tired and unable to perform your usual tasks. Your muscles weaken, you may become confused and headaches might start to set in. You could also feel nauseated or even throw up.
What happens if your sodium level is too low?
Once your sodium reaches that dangerously low point, you can have seizures or start convulsing uncontrollably as you lose muscle control. Ultimately, as your heart rhythm continues to slow down, you may pass out or slip into a coma, possibly resulting in a fatality. av-override. ‒‒:‒‒. /. ‒‒:‒‒. Replay. Skip.
How does sodium affect your body?
Sodium works hard with other electrolyte minerals to maintain an even amount of fluid in and around cells. Without adequate sodium in your body, the fluid concentrations shift. The electrical current that powers your muscles and heart rhythm deteriorates, resulting in an abnormally weak heartbeat.
What is the ideal sodium level?
Somewhere around 135 to 145 milliequivalents per liter, or mEq/L, is the ideal range for serum sodium, reports MedlinePlus. It isn’t common for sodium levels to be low, but once your sodium drops below 135 mEq/L, it can be problematic. Having a level of 125 milliequivalents per liter or less is severely dangerous. Some labs may use slightly different values. Check with your lab technician or physician to see if your sodium level is off.
Why is my sodium level low?
Some causes aren’t so obvious, however. An abnormally low sodium level could be a sign of kidney disease, heart failure or cirrhosis of the liver.
Does sodium increase blood pressure?
Excess sodium increases your blood pressure and leads to heart disease if you continuously consume a lot of it. However, sodium does have important functions in your system, such as balancing fluid and conducting electricity for muscle and heart processes. So if your sodium levels get too low, these functions don’t work properly.
What is the normal sodium level?
A normal blood sodium level is between 135 and 145 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L). Hyponatremia occurs when the sodium in your blood falls below 135 mEq/L. Many possible conditions and lifestyle factors can lead to hyponatremia, including: Certain medications. Some medications, such as some water pills (diuretics), ...
What happens when the sodium in your blood is abnormally low?
Hyponatremia occurs when the concentration of sodium in your blood is abnormally low. Sodium is an electrolyte, and it helps regulate the amount of water that's in and around your cells.
How to prevent low sodium?
Getting treatment for conditions that contribute to hyponatremia, such as adrenal gland insufficiency, can help prevent low blood sodium. Educate yourself. If you have a medical condition that increases your risk of hyponatremia or you take diuretic medications, be aware of the signs and symptoms of low blood sodium.
Why does my body lose sodium?
Chronic, severe vomiting or diarrhea and other causes of dehydration. This causes your body to lose electrolytes, such as sodium, and also increases ADH levels. Drinking too much water. Drinking excessive amounts of water can cause low sodium by overwhelming the kidneys' ability to excrete water.
Why do older people have hyponatremia?
Older adults may have more contributing factors for hyponatremia, including age-related changes, taking certain medications and a greater likelihood of developing a chronic disease that alters the body's sodium balance.
What causes sodium to be lowered?
Heart, kidney and liver problems. Congestive heart failure and certain diseases affecting the kidneys or liver can cause fluids to accumulate in your body, which dilutes the sodium in your body, lowering the overall level. Syndrome of inappropriate anti-diuretic hormone (SIADH).
How long does it take for sodium to drop?
In chronic hyponatremia, sodium levels drop gradually over 48 hours or longer — and symptoms and complications are typically more moderate. In acute hyponatremia, sodium levels drop rapidly — resulting in potentially dangerous effects, such as rapid brain swelling, which can result in a coma and death.
What is the normal sodium level in blood?
According to “Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests with Nursing Implications,” the normal sodium level in the blood is 135 to 145 milliequivalents per liter of blood. Any value below 135 mEq/L is considered to be a low sodium level, a condition medically referred to as hyponatremia.
What happens if you have low sodium?
And while too much of the salty stuff can be quite dangerous -- causing high blood pressure and increasing the risk for various diseases -- a small amount of the nutrient is necessary for normal body function.
Why is swelling in the brain dangerous?
Because brain cells are so tightly confined by the skull bones, even a small amount of swelling can be dangerous. This is particularly dangerous when sodium levels drop rapidly, causing brain cells to swell rapidly. Without immediate medical treatment, this rapid swelling could lead to coma and death.
How do you know if you have hyponatremia?
Symptoms. The common symptoms of hyponatremia are related to brain swelling. Early symptoms might include confusion, headache and irritability. As the swelling progresses, additional symptoms might include hallucinations, loss of consciousness and coma. Since sodium also plays a role in muscle contraction, critically low sodium levels can also ...
Why is sodium important?
It circulates through the bloodstream and plays an important role in maintaining blood pressure and fluid balance. When sodium levels in the bloodstream drop, the body attempts to compensate by moving water from the bloodstream into the cells. This fluid shift attempts to create a safe ratio of sodium to water -- so the sodium is neither too ...
Can low sodium cause muscle spasms?
Since sodium also plays a role in muscle contraction, critically low sodium levels can also cause muscle weakness, cramps or spasms.
Is sodium shift dangerous?
Dangers. Typically, the swelling that occurs with a sodium shift is relatively harmless. Most cells can handle the influx of water -- and while you might notice uncomfortable puffiness or swelling in various areas of your body, it typically has no ill effects. But when the cells in the brain swell, it’s much more detrimental.
What does it mean when you have low sodium?
Low blood sodium (hyponatremia) occurs when you have an abnormally low amount of sodium in your blood or when you have too much water in your blood. Low blood sodium is common in older adults, especially those who are hospitalized or living in long-term care facilities.
Why is hyponatremia more common in older adults?
Hyponatremia is more common in older adults because they're more likely to take medications or have medical conditions that put them at risk of the disorder. These risk factors include: Drugs that make you urinate more (diuretics) Some types of antidepressants. Carbamazepine, an anti-seizure medication.
What are the causes of hyponatremia?
Hyponatremia is more common in older adults because they're more likely to take medications or have medical conditions that put them at risk of the disorder. These risk factors include: 1 Drugs that make you urinate more (diuretics) 2 Some types of antidepressants 3 Carbamazepine, an anti-seizure medication 4 Underactive thyroid or adrenal glands 5 Decreased function of the kidneys, liver or heart 6 Certain cancers, including lung cancer 7 Certain illnesses, such as pneumonia or urinary tract infections, that can cause dehydration
How to treat hyponatremia?
Hyponatremia treatments may include changing a medication that affects your sodium level, treating the underlying disease, changing the amount of water you drink or changing the amount of salt in your diet.
Your Sodium level of 125 indicates a Low Sodium level
If your Sodium is in between 136 mmol/L and 145 mmol/L, then you need not worry as 136-145 mmol/L is the normal range for Sodium. But if your Sodium is lesser or greater than the above values, then there may be some problem in your body.
Consult a doctor for your Sodium problem
If you take a Sodium blood test and the results are not in the normal range (136-145 mmol/L), your physician may recommend more tests to figure out the problem. You might also get this test if your physician thinks you have some other disease.
How the Sodium Test Is Done
If your doctor wants Sodium test on you, you may need a Sodium blood test. During the Sodium blood test, a pathologist will put a needle into your veins and take out a small quantity of blood. A pathologist is a physician in the medical field who thoroughly studies the causes and effects of disease.