Hypokalemia is the medical term for low levels of potassium in the blood. Because potassium is essential for proper nerve and muscle function, very low levels of potassium can cause serious problems. Recognizing the signs and symptoms of low...
Blood calcium levels have little to do with how much calcium is contained in your bones, but rather indicates how much of the nutrient is circulating in your blood. Calcium plays a key role not only in skeletal health, but also in the health of...
Vitamins and minerals are organic and inorganic nutrients that are crucial to appropriate nutrition and normal body function. Your body does not make most nutrients and requires consumption in your daily diet. Some vitamin and mineral deficiency...
Formulating a diagnosis is an ongoing, dynamic and flexible process. Your health care practitioner may start with a medical history, which includes aspects of the present illness, past illnesses, surgeries, medications, social habits such as...
Consuming an adequate amount of vitamins and minerals has become increasingly difficult as the standard American diet becomes richer in engineered and refined foods. Most of the nutrients your body needs are found in fruits and vegetables, which...
The University of Texas Medical Branch reports that hypercalcemia is the most common disorder associated with lung, neck, head and breast cancers. Doctors use the term hypercalcemia to describe high levels of calcium in the blood. Although the...
The renal diet helps people with kidney disease preserve their remaining kidney function and avoid complications. Having diabetes along with kidney disease makes meal planning more complicated, as diabetics also need to control the amount of...
The body uses protein for repairing tissues, producing enzymes, regulating muscle contraction, creating hormones and transporting nutrients. The organs assist in protein production by producing some amino acids, but they cannot produce all of the...
Healthy kidneys control the amount of potassium in the body by "deciding" how much to excrete in the urine and how much to send back into the bloodstream. Damaged kidneys do not perform this function properly, so potassium builds up in the blood....
There are chemical compounds in your body responsible for metabolic reactions that allow your body to function properly and create energy. Discussions of these reactions fill textbooks and scientific journals, but in a very elementary summarized...
Sodium is a cation, or positively charged ion, that is abundant in the extracellular tissues. It has a variety of purposes in the human body, including regulation of blood and body fluids and transmission of nerve impulses. For adults, a normal...
When the kidneys function normally, they filter waste from the blood and help the body maintain normal fluid and electrolyte levels. When kidney disease and other kidney disorders damage the kidney tissues, these organs lose their ability to...
Creatinine forms as a waste product when the body metabolizes the proteins from the foods you eat. The body breaks protein down into creatine and then turns the creatine into creatinine. Decreased creatinine levels do not occur as often as...
Creatinine is a chemical waste product produced in your body as a result of muscle metabolism. The breakdown of meat foods can also produce some creatinine in your body. Healthy kidneys remove creatinine from your blood and deposit in your urine...
When your body stores too much iron, your liver may be affected and release certain enzymes into your bloodstream. Your health-care provider may wish to test your blood for any or all of several liver enzymes or for various indicators of your iron...
CMP, or comprehensive metabolic panel, is a series of tests doctors use to evaluate kidney and liver function, to determine if you are in fluid and acid-base balance and to measure blood glucose and blood protein. A CMP typically involves a series...
Sodium has a variety of uses. It assists in blood pressure regulation, fluid volume maintenance, nerve conduction and muscle contraction. Sodium is added to foods as a flavor enhancer and is used as a preservative. The recommended dietary sodium...
Calcium and glucose participate in many of the most important chemical processes in the body. Calcium provides structure for bones and teeth, participates in hormone secretion and muscle contraction, and optimizes the activities of protein and...
If you have recently quit drinking, you should commend yourself on making a positive life change. Drinking can leave your body in bad shape and also make it challenging to reach your weight loss goals. Losing weight involves being ready on both a...
The human body has several intricate processes that maintain normal potassium and calcium levels in the blood. When organ damage, acute illness or chronic illness interrupts these processes, potassium and calcium levels may increase. Doctors refer...
A Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, or CMP, is a group of 12 to 20 blood tests used to screen for a wide variety of medical disorders. The presence or absence of liver, kidney or other diseases may be determined based on the pattern of results....
If you are experiencing abdominal bloating, you know how uncomfortable and painful it can be. If bloating is triggered by exercising or symptoms get worse, it could be an indication of an underlying medical problem. In most cases, bloating can be...
The kidneys perform several important functions that preserve life. These functions include regulating blood pressure, filtering wastes from the blood, producing urine and maintaining normal fluid and electrolyte levels. When kidney function...
Vitamins and minerals testing is important to determine your nutritional health profile and identify any abnormal levels of nutrients associated with disease; either too little or too much of a particular vitamin or mineral can indicate dietary...
Vitamins and minerals help keep the body functioning properly, and a deficiency in any of these substances can cause an array of symptoms. You may not always be aware of what you may be lacking, and medical tests may be helpful in accurately...
Potassium is one of six important electrolytes -- sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chlorine and phosphate -- that work together to maintain the right acid-base balance in your body fluids. Sodium and potassium work together to make sure...
Your body is a factory. All day long, chemical processes work to synthesize nutrient molecules, carry energy to the cells and combat disease and infection. At any given moment, targeted blood tests can take a snapshot of these processes and...
A physician may order a blood chemistry test to help diagnose an illness. Blood chemistry testing gives a good overview of how the kidneys are functioning and can determine if a patient is dehydrated. This test also measures blood sugar and the...
Laboratory blood tests can help doctors to diagnose problems in their patients. While there is no such thing as a "standard blood test," there are several common blood test panels that your doctor may recommend. These can be ordered as part of a...
