Magnesium is involved in over 300 biochemical reactions in your body, and it helps maintain normal nerve and muscle function, supports your immune system and regulates your blood sugar levels. According to the University of Maryland Medical...
Numerous conditions can cause low potassium and electrolyte levels. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, or UMMC, potassium is both a mineral and an electrolyte. An electrolyte is a substance that conducts electricity in the...
Numerous conditions or factors can cause hypokalemia, or a potassium deficiency. According to the World's Healthiest Foods website, potassium helps a person's muscles and nerves function properly, maintains the proper electrolyte and acid-base...
Potassium is a mineral required by your body for the proper function of all organs, tissues and cells, and it is an electrolyte necessary for the heart to beat properly. In addition, potassium plays a vital role in muscular and digestive...
Several medical conditions are linked to potassium deficiency. According to the MedlinePlus website, hypokalemia is a lower-than-normal level of potassium in your blood. Hypokalemia is a symptom, not a disease. Numerous factors can cause...
A variety of conditions may cause you to crave salt. Mild salt cravings may not even be nutritionally related, and could stem from previous experience or the desire for crunchy texture found in many salty snacks. If you experience sudden,...
Sodium is one of the body's necessary nutrients, and it plays an important role in fluid balance, nerve function and blood pressure regulation. A variety of medical conditions may cause salt cravings, which may in turn lead to excessive salt...
The human body needs potassium for normal functioning of the muscles, cells and nerves. When blood levels of potassium fall, serious problems such as abnormal heart rhythms or cardiac arrhythmia can occur. Muscular weakness and stomach...
Potassium is a mineral that your body needs to maintain a proper fluid balance, as well as to ensure that your nerve cells are able to send messages to your brain so you can use your muscles. You need a certain amount of potassium in your blood...
Too little potassium in the blood can cause cramps, muscle aches, weak muscles or paralysis. It could also cause cardiac arrhythmia, a condition in which the heart beats too fast, too slow or irregularly. In the digestive system, this deficiency...
A craving for salt can have either physiological roots, or it can be a matter of acquired taste. It can be a reaction to temporary dehydration, but if it's a chronic, frequent and overriding demand, your body might be trying to tell you that...
Lower than normal levels of potassium in the body, or hypokalemia, can alter the way the heart works. This condition can cause symptoms such as weak muscles, constipation and cardiac arrhythmia -- abnormal heart beats. Conditions that cause the...
Potassium is an essential mineral that help maintains proper cell, tissue and organ function in the body. Potassium is also one of the body's electrolytes that conducts electricity in the body and is crucial to healthy heart function and muscular...
Salt is the chemical compound made of 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride, or NaCl. Seawater is probably the largest source of salt. Salt is essential to good health. Your body cannot manufacture salt and therefore it is a necessary part of...
Potassium is an electrolyte, or a mineral, within the body that has an electrical charge. It is very important because the heart and nervous system must have potassium to function. Potassium helps build muscles and proteins, and helps with the...
The nutrient potassium supports the function of muscle and nerve cells. The amount of potassium in the body is regulated by the kidneys. Low potassium, or hypokalemia, occurs when the level of potassium in the blood is insufficient to support the...
In the United States, the incidence of obesity, a condition of excess body fat, has risen to epidemic proportions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in July 2011 that 33.8 percent of adults in the United States are classified...
The human heart is a complex electrical organ with its own switch-like pacemaker and “wiring.” Your heart rate is influenced by a variety of factors, including impulses from your nervous system and alterations in the levels of...
Potassium is a vital element in the body. It is the most common element inside cells, especially muscle cells. Hypokalemia is the medical term that describes low potassium levels in the bloodstream. Potassium deficiency in a child can be caused by...
Potassium is essential for heart, muscle, nerve, skeletal and digestive function. If you don't consume enough potassium in your diet or if you have certain medical conditions or take some medications, your blood levels of potassium may drop,...
Potassium is an electrolyte that helps conduct electricity in you body. It is essential for proper heart, muscle and nerve function, as well as for turning the food you eat into energy. Some enzymes also require potassium to function. Levels of...
Hypokalemia is a low blood potassium level. If your serum potassium level is between 3.6 mEq/L and 4.8 mEq/L, it is normal. However, if your potassium falls below 2.5 mEq/L, you are at risk for life-threatening manifestations of hypokalemia, and...
Potassium is an element that functions as an electrolyte, or a substance that conducts electricity in the body. As an electrolyte, potassium aids in regulation of fluid balance in the body, muscle contraction, nerve function and heart function....
Potassium is an electrolyte found in your cells, and is essential to make your muscles and nerves function smoothly. Low serum potassium refers to having too little potassium in your body when measured through a blood test. The National Institutes...
Potassium is an electrolyte needed by the body for heart, nerve and muscle function. Symptoms of a potassium deficiency, also called hypokalemia, include dizziness upon standing, a weak pulse, shallow breathing, weakness, nausea, frequent...
Potassium is an electrolyte, one of the many electrically charged molecules that are important in the body's metabolic processes. The majority of the potassium in the body is within the cells, so the levels of potassium in the bloodstream are low...
Potassium is an essential mineral for the body. It is crucial for normal organ, tissue and cell function. It is an electrolyte, along with magnesium, sodium, calcium and chloride. Electrolytes conduct electricity in the body. Potassium is...
The Mayo Clinic states that if you have blood potassium levels of less than 3.6 mEq/L, they fall in the low category, which is also known as hypokalemia. Low potassium levels are most likely temporary, as in the event of excessive sweating from...
You need sufficient amounts of potassium to regulate the beating of your heart, as well as encourage your muscles and nerves to work the way they are supposed to. If you have low potassium levels, you might experience weakness, fatigue, muscle...
