Potassium & Sodium

Skin And Electrolytes

Keeping the right balance of electrolytes in your body guards against dehydration and ensures an adequate amount of fluid in your body. When electrolytes get too low, your body generally lets you know. Because electrolytes are secreted through the skin, your skin can sometimes point to a potential problem with your electrolyte levels.

All About Potassium & Sodium

Sodium, Potassium & Skin Eczema

The patches of eczema may occur anywhere on the body, but they are more likely to appear on the face, scalp or extremities. As of the date of publication, there is no cure for eczema, but bathing with potassium permanganate or ...

How to Reduce Sodium and Substitute Potassium

You can reduce your sodium intake by cutting down on processed foods and eating more natural foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Some individuals can also use a salt substitute that contains potassium chloride instead of...

Does Potassium Displace Sodium?

The potassium-to-sodium ratio in your body should be tilted in favor of potassium, for the correct electrolyte balance and effect on your metabolism. These electrolyte minerals work together to sustain normal fluid volume and b...

Relationship of Sodium and Potassium

Sodium and potassium can create opposite effects in your body, with too much sodium and too little potassium having the potential to increase your risk of high blood pressure, osteoporosis, stroke, kidney stones and gastric can...

The Effect of Magnesium on Sodium-Potassium Balance

Sodium and potassium are both minerals essential to water balance and healthy nerve function. It is common in the American diet for a person to consume too much sodium and too little potassium. High sodium levels and low potass...

Does Potassium Offset Sodium?

Sodium and potassium share a common bond in their roles in body function. Both ensure healthy nervous system activity. Each of these minerals also influences blood pressure. Their complementary roles provide the basis for a hea...

Muscle Conductivity of Sodium & Potassium

Messages pass from your nervous system to your muscles in a zone called the "neuromuscular junction." Nerve cells release acetylcholine, a chemical, into the neuromuscular junction to signal your muscles to contract. ...

How to Lower Potassium Without Raising Sodium

Potassium is a mineral that plays an important role in a variety of body systems. Potassium is necessary to regulate muscle tissue and it also plays a part in digestion and metabolism. Sodium works with potassium to maintain th...

How to Determine the Potassium & Sodium in Fruit Juice

Potassium and sodium are electrolytes that your body needs to regulate blood pressure and fluid balance, as well as to assist in other processes such as muscle movement and nerve function. While most Americans consume more than...

Sulfur, Potassium & Sodium in Ocean Salt

Regular table salt is mined from underground salt deposits and processed to remove impurities, while ocean salt is produced by evaporating sea water. Ocean salt retains a variety of trace minerals, including sulfur and potassiu...

How to Take Potassium to Counteract Sodium

Sodium and potassium are essential elements in your body, with both necessary for the regular function of all cells. Due to the link between these minerals, increasing your potassium intake helps ameliorate the effects of a hig...

Lack of Sodium & Potassium and Dizziness

Sodium and potassium are two minerals known as electrolytes. Your body relies on their exchange to generate the energy for a number of chemical reactions and to regulate biological functions such as heartbeat and muscle movemen...

Potassium & Sodium Ions That Function in the Human Body

Potassium and sodium ions act as power generators inside the cells of your body. Neurons are cells located throughout your nervous system. They communicate information to perform important tasks such as regulating your body tem...

Natural Ways to Maintain Electrolyte Balance

Electrolytes -- chemical compounds that carry electrical charges -- help maintain essential body functions. Sodium, potassium and calcium are minerals in the blood that work together to maintain the balance of fluids in your bo...

Sodium to Potassium Ratios in Food

Foods have different ratios of sodium to potassium, and many foods contain both minerals. A greater proportion of potassium to sodium is important to your overall diet, but does not have to be maintained strictly within specif...

Hypotension & Sodium and Potassium Deficiency

While physicians are generally alarmed when blood pressure measurements are too high, a condition known as hypertension, there may be concern with a reduction in normal blood pressure measurements, or hypotension. Sodium and po...

Low Sodium & Potassium in Urine

Sodium and potassium act as electrolytes in your body, and certain conditions can affect the normal balance of these electrolytes. For example, dehydration can cause hyponatremia, or low amounts of sodium in your bloodstream. A...

What Is Rehydration Powder?

Rehydration powder is essentially sugar and salts. Specifically, these powders contain glucose, sodium chloride, potassium chloride and disodium hydrogen citrate. Preparations may vary slightly among different brands. Rehydrati...

The Relationship Between Potassium and Sodium

Electrolytes such as sodium and potassium are electrically charged elements that help conduct electricity within living organisms. They play a critical role in nerve function, water balance, the regulation of blood volume, musc...

The Significance of Sodium & Potassium Ratios

The minerals sodium and potassium perform many metabolic tasks in the human body, but none is so crucial to your life and health as the regulation of blood pressure. Normal blood pressure is one indication that your heart func...

Does Potassium Counteract Sodium?

Adults 19 and older should consume 4.7 g of potassium per day from foods like potatoes with skins, bananas, meats, prunes, tomatoes, raisins, artichokes and lima beans. Sodium is also a necessary mineral you require daily, alth...

How Nitrite Affects Food

Nitrites are salts used as preservatives, usually within a brine during the meat curing process. The harmful aspect of meat when it spoils is the bacteria causing the spoilage -- for example, the botulinum toxin, which causes b...

Potassium to Counterbalance Sodium

The body needs potassium and sodium to maintain a proper balance of fluids. This balancing act requires only minimal sodium, however. Excess sodium can have harmful effects on your health. Because potassium can help reduce sodi...

What Happens With Sodium & Potassium in Diuretics?

Diuretics stimulate your kidneys for the process of diuresis, or urination. However, diuretics can have unwanted side effects like losing excess potassium, which is a mineral found in your body that helps to perform muscle and ...

Which Is Better for You: Potassium or Sodium?

On the surface, potassium and sodium are equally "good." They're essential minerals you need for survival, harmful only when you consume too much of them. If you're trying to improve your diet, however, sodium likely is one of ...

Why Are Low Sodium Products Higher in Potassium?

As a means to reduce your blood pressure, your physician may recommend cutting back on your sodium intake. Using salt substitutes can help you enjoy similar-tasting foods without the sodium. These substitutes frequently use pot...

Does Potassium Flush Sodium From the Body?

The relationship between the potassium and sodium that you consume in foods forms a checks-and-balances mechanism that sustains the internal body conditions needed for life. A certain concentration of fluids in the bloodstream ...

The Potassium-Sodium Ratio & Nutrition

You likely know that keeping your sodium intake moderate helps to maintain healthy blood pressure. You may not be aware that balancing your sodium intake with your potassium intake is important, as well. If you have high blood ...

Potassium, Sodium & Headaches

Sodium and potassium are essential minerals, which means that your body cannot function properly without enough of these minerals. Getting too much or too little of either of these minerals can cause physical symptoms, but neit...

Potassium, Sodium & Hypertension

In general, normal blood pressure is defined as 120/80 mm Hg or less. If your blood pressure reading is 140/90 mm Hg or higher, it is classified as hypertension, or high blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, it is im...

Function of Chloride in the Body

Chloride, together with sodium, potassium and bicarbonate, is a component of the most common electrolytes of your body. These are the essential substances used by your body to maintain normal function of your cells, organs and ...

Sodium Metabisulfite Vs. Potassium Metabisulfite

Sometimes knowing your ingredients means knowing the many names under which they masquerade. Potassium metabisulfite and sodium metabisulfite are often lumped together under the ambiguous name "sulfites." Potassium metabisulfit...

Difference Between Sodium & Potassium Hydroxide

The chemical names of potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide are KOH and NaOH, respectively. Neither of these chemicals has any nutritional uses, as both would be extraordinarily dangerous to take internally. While they are ...

Potassium Permanganate & Sodium Nitrite

With different colors, chemical properties and commercial uses, potassium permanganate and sodium nitrite have very little in common, other than they are both reagents sold in bulk by chemical manufacturers. Neither has any val...

Should I Take Potassium If I Eat Too Much Sodium?

High blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart failure and kidney disease. Common sense dictates that if you're eating too much sodium, you should cut back, but making sure you're getting enough potassium in your diet won't hurt...

Does Potassium Push Sodium Out of the Body?

The complex interplay of nutrients from the foods you eat creates a system of physiological checks and balances that enables the optimal functioning of your cells, organs and tissues. The relationship between potassium and sodi...

Addison's Disease and Sodium Potassium Levels

Addison's disease is a hormonal disorder of the adrenal gland, which is a hormone producing, or endocrine organ, located above the kidneys. The outer shell of the adrenal gland releases stress hormones, sex steroids and mineral...

Low Sodium & Potassium

Sodium and potassium are minerals and electrolytes that regulate nerve and muscle functions and help maintain your body's normal water balance and regulate blood pressure. Low sodium, or hyponatremia, occurs when the sodium lev...

Medical Condition With High Sodium & Low Potassium

Sodium and potassium are important electrolytes involved in many of the body's functions. Sodium is important for fluid balance, while potassium is important for muscle contraction and the heart's rhythm. Several conditions can...

What Are Potassium & Sodium?

Potassium and sodium are electrolytes, minerals that have an electrical charge. Electrolytes are located in blood, urine and other bodily fluids. Most of the potassium in your body is inside your cells, and most of the sodium i...

Do Diuretics Affect Sodium and Potassium Levels?

This reduction in fluid puts less pressure on the walls of your blood vessels and helps reduce pressure in your arteries. Diuretics come in three types: loop diuretics, such as torsemide and furosemide; thiazides, such as hydro...

Low Potassium & Sodium

Potassium and sodium are electrolytes, electrically charged molecules that affect a number of body functions, including fluid balance, heart rhythm, kidney function and muscle movement. Both sodium and potassium are kept withi...

Sodium, Potassium & the Heart Rate

Sodium, potassium and other nutrients are required to maintain the body's normal health. These elements, along with several others, are absolute requirements for human life. They are so basic to the function of every cell that ...

Sodium & Potassium Deficiency Symptoms

Sodium and potassium are electrolytes that are critical for maintaining fluid balance in the body. Sodium deficiency is referred to as hyponatremia. Low sodium levels cause an increase in fluid levels and this results in the sw...

Low Phosphorus, Potassium & Sodium Menus

Chronic kidney disease patients have dietary restrictions for phosphorus, potassium and sodium. Kidney disease is when your kidneys are unable to excrete wastes efficiently and regulate water and other chemicals in your body. H...

High Potassium & Sodium

Sodium and potassium are important elements for various processes in the human bodies. They are electrolytes, electrically charged molecules that serve as essential components in fluid balance, muscle movement, heart function i...

Potassium & Sodium Levels

Potassium and sodium are essential nutrients and need to be consumed in small amounts for the body to function properly. They are classified as electrolytes, and as such need to be kept in balance for optimum health. Too much o...

Normal Potassium & Sodium Levels

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 ...

What Causes Low Potassium & a Low Sodium Count?

The human body needs sodium and potassium to remain healthy. These two electrolytes have many functions including maintaining nerve and muscle function. A decrease in blood sodium concentration, also called hyponatremia, can ca...

Abnormal Levels of Calcium, Potassium or Sodium

Sodium, potassium and calcium are three of the most essential nutrients to your body. But when any one of them is out of balance -- or all three at the same time -- it can cause serious effects to your body and the way it opera...

Sodium & Potassium Food Facts

Sodium and potassium are two minerals the body uses as electrolytes, meaning they are needed to carry out electrical signals within the body. Sodium, for example, is required for optimum nerve and muscle function and also to re...

Does Sodium Oxalate React With Potassium Permanganate?

The reaction of potassium permanganate with sodium oxalate proceeds via a classic oxidation-reduction reaction. Two half-reactions make up the full reaction. In each half-reaction, chemicals either lose or gain electrons. In th...

Potassium & Sodium Content in Foods

All minerals are tiny bits of inorganic elements that come from the soil or water and are eaten or absorbed by plants and animals. Sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium are among the essentials minerals that scientists know ...

Causes of Low Sodium & Potassium

Sodium and potassium are positively charged salt ions called electrolytes. These and other minerals are essential for a number of basic cellular functions, including nerve stimulation and communication, pH balancing and fluid c...

Sodium Nitrate & Potassium Nitrate

The slightly different chemical and physical properties of potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate make them suitable for different practical applications. Sodium nitrate, often referred to as Chile peter or Peru saltpeter, preser...

Sodium Potassium & Chloride in the Body

Sodium, potassium and chloride all function as electrolytes in your body and play important functions such as maintaining cellular fluid balance, conducting proper nerve impulses and maintaining normal blood pressure. Your body...

Can a Person Take Potassium to Offset Too Much Sodium?

Potassium and sodium are elements in your body that help your muscles and nerves to function normally. High levels of sodium can lead to high blood pressure, so doctors typically recommend a low-sodium diet for people at risk o...

Symptoms of Low Sodium & Low Potassium

Sodium and potassium are electrolytes -- the electricity-conducting minerals or salts in your body that help maintain fluid balance and regulate muscle and nerve function. Normal potassium levels run from 3.6 to 4.8 mEq/L and n...

Sodium Chloride & Potassium Functions

Sodium chloride and potassium are minerals that provide a number of functions to the human body. Both are found in food and can be consumed with a balanced diet. Sodium chloride, or table salt, is commonly used to provide flavo...

Foods With Potassium & Sodium

High blood pressure is also known as hypertension. Potassium and sodium are two nutrients that have a direct relationship with hypertension. A diet high in sodium can elevate blood pressure levels. Potassium can help prevent an...

Potassium & Sodium in the Diet

Sodium and potassium are electrolytes, substances that conduct electricity in the body. Electrolytes affect the amount of water in your body, as well as the pH levels of your blood, and other important bodily functions. It is i...

Which Foods Contain Potassium, Sodium & Chloride?

Potassium, sodium and chloride are three electrolytes that work together in your body to regulate muscle contractions, including heart contractions. They also help regulate the amount of fluids in your blood and cells. Maintain...

Foods Containing Potassium & Sodium

Potassium can offset a few of the effects of sodium, says Health.gov. My-Pyramid.gov states that a lot of potassium in your diet may also help keep blood pressure at a healthy level.

Reasons for Too Much Sodium & Potassium in the Body

Doctors refer to high levels of sodium in the body as hypernatremia and high levels of potassium as hyperkalemia. In healthy people, the endocrine system, circulatory system and urinary system work together to maintain very nar...

Signs & Symptoms of Low Potassium & Sodium

Potassium and sodium are both essential elements to your body's health. According to the Mayo Clinic, potassium helps maintain the normal functioning of your nerves and muscles, including your heart. Although potassium levels n...

Sodium Chloride & Potassium

Sodium chloride and potassium represent two chemicals essential for life as well as industrial uses. Both substances function in chemical reactions, providing the building blocks for other products. These chemicals occur natura...

High Potassium and Sodium Levels

The human body requires sodium and potassium to maintain normal functions. Potassium controls muscle contractions and nerve impulse transmission, while sodium controls the amount of water in the body and generates electrical im...

How to Replace Electrolytes

Electrolytes are essential chemical substances that are necessary for the metabolism of all the cells in your body. Electrolytes include potassium and sodium. It is very important that you maintain the balance of these electrol...

5 Things You Need to Know About Chloride

Chloride is one of many minerals in the human body. Together with potassium and sodium, these electrolyte minerals keep the right amount of fluids in your body. The kidneys control the amount of chloride in your body to make s...