What does sodium do in the body? sodium in the human body. The main functions of sodium in the body
Sodium is very useful for humans, because it ensures the normal functioning of the entire body, and also contributes to the constant transmission of nerve impulses. Part of the sodium is part of the human blood and the fluid that is found between cells. This macronutrient regulates the water balance of the human body.
The role of sodium in the human body
In the human body, this macronutrient is responsible for:
- acid state control;
- regulation and distribution of fluid throughout the body;
- activation of the formation of hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes in the stomach;
- balancing the acid-base structure and osmotic pressure;
- transmission of nerve impulses to the brain.
Sodium is a fairly common macronutrient found in many foods. Foods rich in this vital macronutrient include:
- salt;
- red beets, celery and seaweed;
- carrot;
- seafood, as well as beef and kidney.
Daily dose of sodium
The normal amount of sodium for an adult healthy organism is 1-3 g. It must be emphasized that its daily requirement depends on the circumstances and conditions in which a person is located. So, in hot weather and with constant physical exertion, a person will need more sodium to be absorbed.
Lack of sodium in the body
The cause of this condition can only be a rigid salt-free or vegetarian diet. The consequences of a lack of sodium are accompanied by the fact that such macro- and microelements as potassium and chlorine begin to accumulate in the body. This deficiency can also be triggered by frequent blood loss, the use of diuretics, and constant sweating. The lack of this macronutrient in the human body causes significant problems, among which are vomiting, muscle cramps, weight loss, neuralgia, problems with the gastrointestinal tract, as well as impaired absorption of monosaccharides and amino acids.
Excessive salt intake leads to the fact that the kidneys begin to process sodium insufficiently. In this case, a person’s face and legs swell, his blood pressure rises, the body abruptly begins to remove potassium, which leads to dysfunction of the kidneys and heart.
Sodium metabolism in the body
According to doctors and scientists, the process of sodium absorption is much easier and faster if vitamins such as and are present in the human body. And here, on the contrary, they prevent the absorption of a sufficient amount of this macronutrient by the human body, which occurs in the stomach and small intestine.
Indications for the use of sodium
As mentioned above, the human body has a large need for sodium, especially when it is hot, which is characterized by profuse sweating, as well as in cases where a person drinks a lot or when he is engaged in strong and constant physical exertion. In addition, it is recommended to use sodium for people who suffer from hypertension, obesity, allergies, frequent bone fractures, kidney disease, thyroid problems, liver problems, and stomach problems. If a person takes any hormonal drugs, then he needs to reduce his sodium intake.
The human body is a rather complex mechanism. In order for it to work smoothly and without failures, a person must eat right and follow the basic rules of a healthy lifestyle.
A lot really depends on nutrition. If the diet is balanced, and the food is varied and consists of foods that are rich in vitamins, minerals and other useful substances, then, as a rule, a person feels good. If some element is missing, then malfunctions in the work of some organs begin, and the general condition of the body worsens.
One of the important elements for human health is sodium. In nature, it occurs in the form of various compounds. The most familiar to humans are table salt (NaCl) and baking soda (NaHCO3).
We will tell you why sodium is so important for a person, how the deficiency and excess of this element in the body manifests itself, from what foods you can get it.
The role of sodium in the human body
Sodium is a very important element for health. Together with potassium, it is present in every human organ. This means that the full growth and development of the body depends on sodium. Sodium plays a key role in maintaining a normal water-salt balance in cells and regulating the volume of fluid in the body.
This element is important for the effective functioning of the kidneys, nervous and digestive systems, for vascular tone, for normal muscle contraction. Sodium is also a component of an enzyme responsible for energy production and the transport of valuable amino acids and glucose into the cells of the body.
Sodium is useful for the human body both by itself and in combination with other elements. Therefore, it is simply impossible to overestimate its important role. And sodium also performs such an important function as the preservation of minerals in the human blood (in a soluble state).
Everyone knows the ability of salt to retain water in the body. When there is enough sodium in the body (not an excess or deficiency), this function does not work to the detriment of the body. Sodium, on the contrary, protects cells, organs and tissues from dehydration. Therefore, there is no need to completely give up salt.
Symptoms of sodium deficiency and excess
The situation when a person has a lack of sodium in the body is much less common than an excess of sodium. The thing is that we are accustomed to abundantly salt almost all the food that is present on our table. In the meantime, the body doesn't need as much salt as it gets sodium from other foods as well. And this is enough for him.
But it is still important to know how deficiency and excess of sodium in the body manifests itself. Among the main symptoms of a deficiency of this element are dryness and loss of skin elasticity, lack of appetite, nausea, vomiting, hypertension, tachycardia, impaired kidney function, problems with the nervous system, and muscle weakness. Sodium deficiency accompanies dehydration, which is quite dangerous.
An excess of sodium is just as undesirable as its deficiency. Symptoms that should alert you include fluid retention in the body and swelling, muscle cramps, irritability and aggressiveness, decreased kidney function, and fever.
Daily sodium intake
There is no universal daily allowance for sodium for an adult. This number may vary depending on your individual lny features of the body. Therefore, it is so important to monitor your health and periodically visit a doctor for a preventive examination. Only a specialist can determine what amount of sodium is optimal for you.
However, the general figures do exist. For an adult who works under optimal conditions, the recommended daily intake of sodium is 10-15 grams of table salt.
There are also cases in which it is recommended to either increase or, on the contrary, reduce sodium intake. Thus, athletes and workers who are engaged in hard work in hot temperatures are advisedslightly increase the amount of sodium (after all, it helps to retain moisture in the body). And those who suffer from rheumatism, hypertension, obesity, allergies, diseases of the kidneys, pancreas and liver, on the contrary, need to reduce their sodium intake.
Clinically more important than the loss of only water or only sodium is the simultaneous loss of water and sodium in a more or less isotonic ratio. If there is isotonia (for example, in some cases of acute vomiting, diarrhea, fistulas, blood loss), the symptoms are determined mainly by a decrease in the amount of extracellular fluid, and the picture of shock comes to the fore clinically. More often, however, transitions between the syndrome of loss of only water and the syndrome of loss of sodium only are observed, therefore, their opposition is possible only in the presence of extreme conditions, so that in a particular case, on the basis of clinical and laboratory data, it can only be established what prevails: sodium deficiency or water deficiency. .
sodium deficiency(salt wasting syndrome). The predominant depletion of the body in sodium can be distinguished from the predominance of water deficiency on the basis of the following signs: tachycardia, low blood pressure and a tendency to orthostatic collapse. These phenomena occur due to a decrease in the amount of extracellular fluid due to a lack of sodium.
main symptom dehydration- thirst - much less pronounced. On the contrary, general phenomena as an expression of cellular overhydration come to the fore much more strongly: general weakness, apathy, disorders of consciousness, headache, vomiting, muscle cramps. Salivation does not stop. The skin is cold to the touch and with the formation of skin folds, the latter disappear only gradually.
Urine soon low specific gravity, while when dehydrated it is usually high. There are, however, some significant exceptions to this rule: in diabetes insipidus, the specific gravity of urine is necessarily low, despite the presence of hydropenic syndrome.
In the blood sharply the hematocrit is elevated so that a decrease in the amount of extracellular fluid occurs without simultaneous wrinkling of red blood cells. The amount of residual nitrogen, as a rule, increases sharply (uremia due to salt deficiency) in contrast to its only moderate increase with water deficiency; the content of sodium and chlorine is reduced - also in contrast to water deficiency, in which the content of these electrolytes is normal or increased.
Causes of sodium deficiency.
The doctor rarely has to face this as a host symptom, but given the increasingly frequent determination of sodium in plasma and, above all, the importance of the therapeutic consequences of hyponatremia, the differential diagnosis of this syndrome should be discussed.
First of all, it must be emphasized that hyponatremia says little about the total sodium content in the body, and therefore intracellular sodium. Despite hyponatremia, intracellular sodium may even be elevated.
Hyponatremia due to salt deficiency, dilution or decrease in intracellular pressure is possible under the following conditions.
With abnormal sodium loss kidneys due to primary kidney damage. It can be said that in all chronic kidney diseases (as a result of adjoining tubular dysfunction), the mechanism for the exchange of sodium ions for hydrogen ions is often impaired, but this usually leads only to mild hyponatremia. A more pronounced sodium deficiency can occur with the so-called demineralizing nephritis (salt losing nephritis), which from the pathoanatomical point of view does not represent a single picture and is therefore only a purely functional concept. Moderately severe hyponatremia is often found in renal tubular acidosis.
The most pronounced hyponatremia observed with excessive use of diuretics, mainly mercury. To a lesser extent, the risk of hyponatremia occurs when prescribing the latest drugs that promote sodium excretion (chlorothiazide, hydrochlorothiazide, hygroton), since excess sodium excretion normalizes after a few days, despite the further use of these drugs.
Abnormal sodium excretion due to endocrine disorders. Addison's disease is a classic example of this type of disorder. The hormones of the adrenal cortex are involved in the reabsorption of sodium by the renal tubules. With a deficiency of these hormones (mineralocorticoids), sodium excretion in the urine increases due to a decrease in its reabsorption in the tubules and its content in the extracellular fluid decreases. At the same time, the potassium content increases. The action of individual hormones of the adrenal cortex is expressed differently: in the scheme below, the mineralocorticoid effect decreases from left to right, and the glucocorticoid (resp. antirheumatic), on the contrary, increases from left to right.
From this diagram, it can be seen that when what derivatives of cortisone should be considered with a clinically pronounced mineralocorticoid effect.
With insufficiency of the adrenal cortex there may also be a syndrome of water poisoning due to delayed release of water due to a lack of hydrocortisone. In any case, hyperhydration concerns only cells. In addition to slowing down the release of water, hyperhydration is promoted by potassium retention (due to aldosterone deficiency) with a subsequent increase in osmotic pressure inside the cells and loss of sodium with a decrease in the osmotic pressure of the extracellular fluid.
Increased excretion of sodium by the kidneys in lesions of the brain (cerebral salt wasting syndrome), when large amounts of sodium and chlorine are excreted in the urine (Welt et al.). This syndrome, the pathogenesis of which remains unclear, but which makes it possible to understand certain previously unexplained clinical data, is observed in a wide variety of brain diseases (cerebrovascular sclerosis, encephalitis, poliomyelitis, tumor).
From diuretics, which cause the release of sodium, leading to hyponatremia, the greatest importance belongs to mercury preparations. Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, chlorthiazide and hydrochlorothiazide are much less likely to lead to marked hyponatremia.
salt loss(as a rule, simultaneously with fluid loss) through the gastrointestinal tract due to vomiting (mainly with pyloric stenosis) and prolonged diarrhea. This syndrome should be borne in mind primarily by surgeons when draining the stomach and intestines or when losing pancreatic juice. The risk of developing the syndrome is especially high in patients who, when losing salt, drink a lot or receive infusions of solutions that do not contain electrolytes.
Loss of salt through the skin.
With a strong sweating The body loses water first. This can lead to clinically sensitive NaCl losses.
Isolated cases of so-called asymptomatic hyponatraemias in which, despite a normal or increased fluid volume and hyponachemia, there is an increased excretion of sodium and chlorine. We are talking about cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchogenic cancer (Winkler and Crankshaw) and tumors of the mediastinum (Schwartz and colleagues), in which direct mechanical irritation of the left atrial volumetric receptors [Gauer-Henry reflex (Gauer-Henry)] is assumed, followed by an increased intake of adiuretin; this leads to increased water reabsorption in the renal tubules, increased body water content, and increased sodium excretion, followed by hyponatremia.
Of great practical importance is the fact that hyponatremia can also be observed in conditions that are characterized by an increase in the total amount of plasma (and therefore also an increase in the total amount of sodium in the body), for example, in hemodynamic heart failure.
Sodium has been known since ancient times among different peoples. It was mined in the form of alkali from soda lakes, which was used for washing, making glaze for dishes, and even in the mummification of corpses. This element bore several names - nitron, neter. In the Middle Ages, they did not make much difference between potassium and sodium, they were alkalis for making saltpeter. And only in the 18th century, the scientist Klaproth divided them into vegetable alkali (potash) and mineral (soda or natron). But another scientist from England received them in a free form and named potassium (Potassium or potassium) and sodium (Sodium or sodium).
Sodium has such a high activity that it is very difficult to obtain it in a free form. It has a silvery color (see photo), melts very easily (at 98 degrees Celsius) and is so soft that it can be cut with a knife. It does not dissolve in water and does not sink, it floats on its surface. In nature, it is found in many substances, it is contained in the composition of all water bodies and in table salt - in terms of prevalence, this metal ranks sixth on the planet.
In the human body, many processes could not proceed in the absence of this microelement. Sodium is present in the blood, lymph, digestive juice in the form of salts - chlorides, phosphates and bicarbonates.
The action of sodium, its role in the human body and functions
The effect of a microelement on the human body is determined by its distribution in all tissues and body fluids, without exception, and therefore, along with potassium, it is one of the most demanded and plays an important role in the body.
This substance takes an active part in the exchange processes in and between cells, normalizes osmotic pressure, being a positively charged ion. In addition, it regulates the excitability of nerve and muscle fibers due to the interaction of potassium, sodium and chlorine, normalizes the acid-base balance, has a positive effect on the production of digestive enzymes and is a conductor of glucose. Enhances the action of adrenaline, which has a positive effect on the arteries and contributes to their narrowing.
Sodium compounds also have this function: they are able to retain water in the body, avoiding its excessive loss, but at the same time, in combination with potassium, it prevents the retention of excess water.
Most of the sodium that enters the body is absorbed in the small intestine, and only a small fraction in the stomach. About 10% gets into the cells themselves, and about half of all sodium is distributed in the pericellular fluid. The rest is concentrated in bones and cartilaginous tissues.
Daily rate - what is the need for the human body?
The daily norm of the body in a macronutrient can mainly be covered by the consumption of the main source - table salt. One teaspoon contains 2 grams of sodium.
An adult needs about 2 grams of sodium per day, while a child needs 2-3 times less, depending on age.
It should also be taken into account that with active sweating and diuresis, sodium is very actively washed out. Therefore, the need can increase up to 6 grams. The maximum amount of salt that our kidneys can process without much harm is within 20 grams, a larger amount can be life threatening.
There is an approximate calculation of the rate of sodium intake for a person: for 1 liter of water drunk per day, you need to consume 1 gram of table salt.
Our body cannot produce this element on its own, so it can only come from external sources. As already known, a person receives the main part of sodium with table salt. Sea salt has beneficial properties only in purified form.
This chemical element is present in hard cheeses, milk, beef, seaweed and seafood, carrots, beets and mineral water. Also, a large amount of sodium is found in bakery products and finished products - sauces, seasonings, canned food, soy sauce.
In addition to healthy sodium in the composition of ready meals, there is a large amount of monosodium glutamate, called the "soul of taste." And in this form, it can be considered a slow-acting poison. He can even turn cardboard into a very appetizing dish. Although according to the official version, such a flavor enhancer is absolutely harmless, in fact, already in 1957, scientists identified its toxic effect, leading to visual impairment, obesity and multiple sclerosis.
Lack (deficiency) of sodium in the body
A macronutrient deficiency is a rather rare phenomenon and occurs as a result of strict diets or fasting, as well as with frequent uncontrolled intake of diuretic drugs, potassium and calcium, with diseases of the kidneys and adrenal glands.
Lack of sodium can cause weakness, fatigue, dizziness, seizures, skin rashes, and hair loss. Abnormal digestion of carbohydrates may develop. Also, there are processes such as lowering blood pressure and low urination, there are bouts of thirst, nausea, vomiting.
Regular deficiency of the substance can cause hallucinations, impaired consciousness and the vestibular apparatus. If left untreated, protein breakdown occurs and the amount of nitrogen in the body increases. In such cases, the introduction of glucose or large amounts of water can be fatal.
Vitamin D contributes to the absorption of sodium, but this action can be neutralized by too salty food, which is also rich in proteins.
Excess sodium - what are the symptoms?
Excess sodium in the human body happens much more often than a deficiency and can cause significant harm.
It is difficult to find a person who would not consume salt in food several times a day, so most often the amount of salt even exceeds the required norm. In addition, an excess of sodium can cause diseases such as hypertension, neurosis, diabetes mellitus, and impaired kidney function. And salt additionally increases the load on the kidneys and heart, slows down the movement of blood, because sodium chloride begins to displace important substances from the cells. Therefore, it is important to remove excess sodium in a timely manner by eating fermented milk products.
Overdose causes such symptoms: heavy sweating, increased urination, thirst, overexcitation and hyperactivity. Fluid accumulates in the body, edema appears and hypertension occurs.
Indications for appointment
Indications for the appointment of a trace element:
Sodium in the human body is needed in order to maintain the necessary water-salt balance in its cells, as well as to normalize kidney function and neuromuscular activity. In addition, it ensures the preservation of minerals in the blood in a soluble state.
The role of sodium in the human body is extremely important, because without it the normal state and growth of our body is simply unthinkable, it actively affects the body both by itself and in combination with other elements. For example, when interacting with chlorine, sodium helps to avoid leakage of fluid from blood vessels into adjacent tissues.
Without sodium, it is also impossible to transfer blood sugar to every cell of our body, it is a generator of the normal functioning of signals from the nervous system, and also participates in muscle contraction - all this once again indicates how significant the role of sodium in the human body. In addition, the substance reduces the risk of sunstroke or heat stroke, and also has a vasodilating effect.
Too much sodium in the body
Excess sodium in the human body can be a consequence of prolonged salt intake, because of this, hyprnatremia can develop, and cellular dehydration occurs. Symptoms of excess sodium are manifested in the form of fever, fluid retention in the body, seizures, decreased kidney function, increased excitability.
Lack of sodium in the body
However, it should be remembered that a lack of sodium in the body, as well as its excess, can be dangerous for human health. Sodium deficiency can be the result of a wide variety of pathologies, due to which it is released in an increased amount, and compensation for the required amount of the substance does not follow (for example, with diarrhea, extensive burns, severe vomiting, with prolonged use of diuretic drugs, etc.). As a result, dehydration of the body occurs - this is the result of hyponatremia.
Symptoms of sodium deficiency are expressed in the occurrence of a specific thirst (if it is possible to quench it only when you drink a slightly salted liquid), the appearance of dryness of the skin, loss of its elasticity. The consequences of hyponatremia are also violations of the normal functioning of various organs of the human body, namely: the alimentary canal (nausea, vomiting, lack of appetite), the central nervous system (coma, apathy, mental disorders, confusion), the cardiovascular system (tachycardia, arterial hypotension ), kidneys (anuria, oliguria, increasing azotemia).
Remember that eating food containing less than 5 g of sodium chloride for a healthy person carries the risk of hypotension, but for hypertensive patients, on the contrary, it is useful, as it normalizes blood pressure.
What foods contain sodium
Scientists have proven that a person loses sodium in the process of sweating, which means that the body almost constantly needs new intakes of the substance. At particular risk are people who adhere to an active lifestyle, in particular, athletes. It should be remembered here that the human body cannot produce sodium on its own, and this can only mean one thing - it is possible to compensate for the loss of a substance only from the outside, that is, with food intake and special nutritional supplements. If you are wondering what foods contain sodium, then the very first thing that comes to mind will be simple table salt, for 100 grams of ordinary salt there are 40 grams of sodium. In addition to salt, there are other sources of sodium - soy sauce, sea salt, as well as various variations on the theme of salty foods (these can be various pickles, brines, broths cooked with meat, canned meat). Many experts argue that it is more beneficial to eat purified sea salt, because, unlike ordinary salt, it does not retain water in our body.
