Hyponatremia refers to a dangerously low sodium level in the fluid surrounding your body's cells. Your body needs sodium, an electrolyte, for numerous critical life functions, including nervous system and muscle actions. Hyponatremia often develops as a result of fluid imbalances in the body, either because of water intake or sodium and water excretion. Many medical conditions and treatments can cause hyponatremia to develop.
Fluid Loss
Any condition or medical treatment that causes the body to lose excessive amounts of fluid can result in hyponatremia. Even severe diarrhea and vomiting can cause sodium levels to fall to dangerous levels, although these conditions can also indicate that a person suffers from hyponatremia, MedlinePlus reports. Heavy urine output created by medications such as diuretics, which are often used to treat high blood pressure, also can upset the sodium balance in your body. Other medicines that can increase urine output include antidepressants and pain relievers.
Excessive Fluid Intake
Just as excessive fluid loss from the body can cause hyponatremia, so, too, can excessive fluid intake. In essence, when you drink copious amounts of water rapidly, you body can overdose on it, the University of Alabama Birmingham Healthy System reports. The condition develops because the excess water flows into the cell's in your body, causing them to swell. Most body cells can deal with the excessive water, but the cells in your brain cannot accommodate the size increase because they are enclosed in the cell. When brain cells grow too large, it can cause convulsions, seizures and coma or even death if not promptly treated.
Kidney and Hormone Disorders
When your kidneys do not function properly, your body is unable to process bodily fluids and rid the body of waste. This can cause electrolyte imbalances such as hyponatremia to develop. Conditions that affect the body's production and release of hormones that act on the kidneys, such as antidiuretic hormone, can also cause sodium levels to fall dangerously low. Impairment of the body's production of hormones that regulate electrolyte levels within the body, such as in the case of Addison's disease, can also affect sodium levels if not properly monitored and treated.
Congestive Heart Failure
People who suffer from congestive heart failure become more prone to hyponatremia as their condition progresses because of how it affects fluid levels in the body. Because the heart is not strong enough, fluid begins to accumulate in the body, particularly in the lower legs and abdomen, MayoClinic.com reports. This fluid retention upsets the delicate electrolyte balance that your body needs to function properly.
Chronic Liver Disease
Alcoholics and other people who suffer from the chronic liver disease cirrhosis also become prone to hyponatremia. In this case, the condition becomes more likely because the body can no longer process fluids properly and it begins to accumulate in the abdominal cavity and other tissue spaces.
Drug Abuse
Use of the drug ecstasy affects both the water level in your body as well as the amount of antidiuretic hormone that regulates urine output, according to MayoClinic.com. Using ecstasy can quickly bring on hyponatremia, a situation that is amplified and even more likely when the ecstasy use is accompanied by drinking alcohol, which works like a diuretic in the body.
