Electrolytes are essential minerals that regulate critical functions in your body, but imbalances can lead to serious health complications. Understanding what happens when your body is low on electrolytes can help identify problems before they become severe.
Here’s what to know about electrolytes, what causes imbalances, and how to recognize low electrolyte symptoms.
What Are Electrolytes?
Electrolytes are minerals like sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. When dissolved in blood or bodily fluids, they carry a positive or negative electrical charge. Electrolytes balance fluid volume in and outside your cells, and regulate blood pressure, nerve and muscle function, and pH levels, among other things.
Your body can’t make electrolytes. These essential minerals come from the foods you eat and the beverages you drink.
For example, bananas, lentils, winter squash, and cantaloupe are high in potassium. Dairy foods like milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese are rich in calcium. And nuts and seeds provide plenty of magnesium.
Maintaining healthy electrolyte levels is crucial, and your kidneys are usually excellent regulators. When you consume more electrolytes than you need, the kidneys filter and excrete the excess in your urine. If electrolyte levels drop, they return some to your blood.
What Happens When Your Body Is Low on Electrolytes?
Electrolyte levels can fluctuate from day to day but typically remain within a normal range. So, if they get too low or too high, your doctor will want to run tests to figure out why.
Low electrolyte levels can affect how your nerves and muscles work. That can impair your heartbeat and rhythm, your brain function, and how muscles throughout your body work. Since electrolytes regulate fluid balance and blood pressure, you may also develop high or low blood pressure from low electrolytes.
Without treatment, severely low electrolyte levels can cause:
- Coma
- Death
- Heart attack
- Seizures
Low Electrolyte Symptoms
Low electrolyte levels can cause minor or significant symptoms. Symptoms of electrolyte imbalance can depend on which electrolyte is low, but you may experience:
- Confusion.
- Difficulty speaking or breathing.
- Dizziness.
- Fatigue.
- Heart arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat).
- Irritability.
- Muscle cramps, weakness, or spasms.
- Nausea or vomiting.
- Seizures.
Causes of Electrolyte Imbalances
It’s somewhat uncommon for your diet to cause severely low electrolyte levels. More often, it happens because of these or other health conditions:
- Certain genetic conditions that affect kidney function.
- Digestive disorders that cause problems absorbing minerals or severe diarrhea.
- Eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia.
- Kidney disease due to poorly controlled diabetes, high blood pressure, or another health condition.
- Medications like certain blood pressure pills that cause you to lose potassium.
- Overhydration, which means you take in more water than your body uses.
- Severe dehydration due to excessive sweating, vomiting, or diarrhea.
- Trauma or severe burns.
Anyone can develop an electrolyte disorder, but older adults are at higher risk. They’re more likely to have health conditions or take medications that contribute to electrolyte loss. Also, older adults may not drink enough fluids, which can upset the balance of certain electrolytes, especially sodium, in their blood.
Sodium and potassium are two of the most frequent electrolyte imbalances. Both can have dangerous consequences, so it’s crucial to understand what causes low sodium and low potassium and how to correct them.
What causes low sodium levels?
Low sodium, called hyponatremia, happens when blood sodium levels fall below 135 mEq/L. Hyponatremia is usually not due to a low-sodium diet. Instead, it develops if you have too much water in your body, which dilutes the amount of sodium in your blood.
These things can increase your risk of low sodium levels:
- Certain medications, especially diuretics (water pills), that cause excess sodium excretion.
- Drinking too much water because of excessive thirst, as with uncontrolled diabetes.
- Kidney disorders.
- Liver disease, such as cirrhosis.
- Heart failure.
- Severe trauma or burns.
When your body is low on sodium, you might notice early signs like a headache, fatigue, or nausea. A sodium level of 115 mEq/L or lower is dangerous and life-threatening and requires immediate medical care.
What causes low potassium levels?
Low potassium, or hypokalemia, is a potassium level of less than 3.5 mEq/L. It happens mostly because your body loses too much potassium through your urine or digestive tract. These are some of the most common reasons for low potassium:
- Alcohol use disorder.
- Diuretic medications that treat high blood pressure.
- Excessive laxative use due to constipation or an eating disorder.
- Gastrointestinal conditions that cause excessive or chronic diarrhea.
- Low levels of magnesium in the blood.
Severely low potassium levels can cause a significant heart arrhythmia (irregular heart rate), which is life-threatening and needs medical treatment.
How to Treat and Prevent Electrolyte Imbalances
There are different treatments for different types of electrolyte imbalances. Treatment also depends on how low your electrolyte levels are. Besides restoring normal electrolyte levels, your health care provider will treat the underlying cause of your electrolyte imbalance.
In the case of low sodium, your doctor may ask you to restrict fluids to help increase your sodium levels. They may also give you a salt solution through an IV. Certain medications can help your kidneys hold onto more sodium.
For low potassium, your doctor may have you add more potassium-rich foods to your diet or take a potassium supplement. These can raise potassium gradually. They may also give you IV potassium supplements to increase potassium quickly.
The best way to prevent electrolyte imbalances is to stay on top of your health. Have an annual checkup and always follow up with your health care provider if you have any existing health conditions. They’ll check your electrolyte levels if necessary, ensure your health issues are well-controlled, and monitor your medications for side effects.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on , and was last reviewed on .