How does sodium retention occur in liver cirrhosis? Most of us accept Schrier’s peripheral arterial vasodilation hypothesis. This hypothesis postulates that overproduction of vasodilatory substances in the splanchnic circulation in cirrhosis leads to splanchnic pooling and decreased “effective”…
Ok, so here is the brief review of the various clinical methods of detecting sodium concentration (as I understand it): Flame photometer The older flame photometer method measured the concentration of sodium in plasma. The preparation of the…
Sodium is the most abundant extracellular cation in humans. The concentration in the extracellular fluid is highly influenced by the amount of fluid it is dissolved in – the reason why we always say that most low sodium…
Cutting back your salt intake is an effective way to reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure and decrease your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. The current guidelines suggest that we should reduce our dietary sodium intake to…
I’ve always been skeptical about ACE inhibitors as a cause of hyponatremia, despite there being almost 20 case reports of this complication in the literature. Given the fact that so many patients I see are taking an ACE…
Back in the early 1970s researchers traveled into the jungle in Northern Brazil to visit a group of Indians. The Yanamomo tribe had lived in isolation for thousands of years and had only been contacted in the 1950s….
Population-wide salt reduction is gaining increased media and political attention over the last few years. The most notable example is the National Salt Reduction Initiative (NSRI) spearheaded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This initiative was unveiled…
Secondary prevention of nephrolithiasis is often overlooked, but since a large percentage of 1st-time stone formers will go on to develop another episode of nephrolithiasis, it makes sense to make simple dietary modifications that can minimize the risk…
