MARY HONDROS: Now I am going to talk a little bit about Addison's disease. In this condition, what happens is that your adrenal glands, which are located on top of your kidneys, do not produce enough of certain hormones. So, those hormones include things like cortisol and aldosterone, which are really important in helping regulate your blood glucose levels, your blood sodium levels, your blood potassium levels and just your water levels in general. So what happens in people with Addison's disease is that they usually end up having low sodium in their systems, high potassium and they can be prone to dehydration because the hormones are not there to help regulate those processes. So, if you do have a condition like this, it is important to keep in mind that you consume extra salt throughout the day because your body actually excretes more salt than it needs to, so you need to replace the amount of salt you are losing. Keep yourself hydrated by drinking eight to 16 ounces of fluid at a time, at certain times throughout the day. You want to aim for a total of 64 ounces of fluid a day to keep yourself hydrated. Stick to all your regular medications. If you have this condition you are going to have to take medicine probably for the remainder of your life in like a form of a hydrocortisone tablet or something. So, four tips to help you if you have Addison's disease is: number one, remember to take your medication as prescribed. Number two, you can add extra salt to your foods. You do not need to worry about buying lower sodium canned foods or low salt versions of foods because you do need that extra salt. Thirdly, remember to limit the amount of potassium you get. If you take a multivitamin, make sure that it does not have too much potassium in it and that you are not taking extra potassium anywhere else. And lastly, remember to limit the amount of potassium that you eat in foods. So limit it to about three servings a day. And those are things like bananas, dried fruits, oranges, orange juice, broccoli and other high potassium foods. So those are four tips on living with Addison's disease.
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