To keep your body healthy and functioning properly, you need to monitor your mineral levels. Minerals essential to your health and wellness include sodium and potassium. Monitoring these mineral levels begins with you learning the normal ranges for each, their function in your body and how to get tested to find out where yours are.
Levels
Normal sodium levels will vary from person to person but the general range is 135 to 145 milliequivalents per liter of blood according to MedlinePlus, a publication of the National Institutes of Health. If you are over this level you are considered to have hypernatremia, while a low sodium level is hyponatremia.
Potassium levels should measure much lower than sodium. MedlinePlus notes that the normal range for potassium is 3.7 to 5.3 milliequivalents per liter. If your level is low, you have hypokalemia. Hyperkalemia is high potassium levels.
Importance
Sodium and potassium are both key electrolytes --- they help electrical signals travel through your body --- and having levels outside of the normal range can greatly affect your health in the short term and long term. Sodium's functions include: regulating fluid levels in your body, transmitting nerve impulses and muscle functioning.
Potassium also influences a myriad of your body's functions. It affects muscular functioning in both voluntary muscles and involuntary muscles such as your heart and digestive tract. Abnormal potassium levels can produce an irregular heart beat, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center website.
Measurement
To know if you have normal sodium and potassium levels you need to get them measured. This is done through a fairly simple blood test. A standard blood chemistry panel includes analyzing your sodium and potassium levels, since both are key electrolytes. Consult your doctor to see about having this test performed and to analyze your individual results.
What Affects Normal Levels
Keeping your sodium and potassium levels normal requires you know where you commonly get them in your diet. You can easily consume more sodium than your body needs if you add extra salt to your foods or eat processed food regularly according to MayoClinic.com. If you have good health, you shouldn't take in more than 2,300 mg a day of sodium but if you already have high blood pressure or diabetes or other health concerns, MayoClinic.com suggests limiting sodium intake to 1,500 mg a day.
Foods high in potassium include common fruits like bananas and tomatoes. Lima beans and potatoes are also good sources. Good protein sources for potassium are chicken, salmon and cod, notes the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Relationship
Potassium and sodium levels may have a relationship with each other. The University of Maryland Medical Center Explains, balancing sodium blood levels is affected by your sodium levels. If you have excess sodium, you may need need to increase your potassium amount too.
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