Sodium and Potassium Imbalance Can Cause Hypertension
By: nikky Howard
Submitted: 2010-06-20 22:49:43 | Word Count: 715
Individuals develop hypertension or high-blood pressure for many reasons. It might be in the genes or due to a kidney disorder and stress connected factors. The foremost common causes but are due to dietary intakes that result to excessive salt in our body. Excessive salt intakes will result to an imbalance between sodium and potassium that causes hypertension in our body.
Excessive salt is sort of simple to understand, however as to how sodium and potassium imbalance causes hypertension seems a bit a lot of complicated.
How Sodium and Potassium Imbalance Causes Hypertension
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Sodium and potassium are 2 important electrolyte nutrients that the body uses for proper nerve functions, energy production, cell renewal, and many other bodily functions.
Salt, whose chemical composition is sodium chloride, is the main source of sodium. It is diminished as sodium and chloride throughout the body's metabolic processes. Water that is not distilled conjointly contains salt hence; water is also a supply of sodium and chloride ions.
Our body cells are said to contain fluids composed of several minerals, which includes sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and chloride. As studies in science have already determined, there must be a proper balance between the sodium and potassium minerals contained in each cell, for the body cells to operate properly.
Some of the necessary cell functions attributed to sodium and potassium balance are:
• The production of acid and digestive enzymes used to break down food to produce energy for the body;
• To enable the nerves to react in terms of impulse reactions to external factors like heat, cold, or pain felt by the body;
• To enable the guts or cardiovascular system to function properly;
Any deficiency in sodium or potassium does not result to life threatening problems, however any serious distortion or disproportion with the quantity of potassium as against sodium, creates complications typically resulting to heart attacks.
Imbalance results not out of potassium or sodium deficiency but principally due to excessive sodium. Potassium deficiency on the opposite hand could arise from unhealthy fad diets.
When there's an excessive amount of sodium within the body fluids, the kidney takes on its natural role of excreting unused or unwanted substances like sodium. But, if the number of sodium being excreted by the kidney is beyond the kidney's traditional capability, the problem will currently arise.
Close to the kidney could be a vascular system or fluid carrying vessels which carry the excessive sodium and will constrict or close itself to blood flow if the kidney is slow in disposing of the sodium it carries. The vascular system closes so as to extend the blood pressure near the kidney, which creates a push or force that will prod the kidney to get rid of the excess sodium.
Though this can be a natural process, it's not a normal incidence and could cause blood pressure to rise at a dangerous level if it can not be addressed in due time. It will be remedied by increasing fluid intakes thus the kidney can have enough water to excrete sodium. The sodium excretion may have been resolved but there's now the elevated blood pressure that should be dealt with.
The matter of controlling elevated blood pressure on the other hand can be remedied by using diuretic methods. The kidney took during a lot of water in order to excrete the sodium out of the system. To help the kidney in manufacturing a lot of urine, a diuretic substance which will induce the kidney to supply more urine can be recommended by the doctor.
However, diuretics might conjointly cause the kidney to excrete potassium, hence the doctor will conjointly prescribe a potassium supplement to avoid the doable incidence of sodium to potassium imbalance.
So, the body can naturally control blood pressure by drinking additional water and taking in dietary substances that can promote the method of diuretics and take care of replenishing lost potassium. This then prevents sodium and potassium imbalance which will cause hypertension.
Author Resource:-
Nikky has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Hypertension, you can also check out his latest website about:
