Low Sodium Makes it Difficult for Older Adults to
Think, Focus, Maintain Balance
Clinical trial seeks older patients to test
medicine's impact on cognitive abilities - more news on low sodium
June
13, 2008 - Low sodium in the blood can make it harder to think and
focus, and it is common in older adults. Simple things such as
forgetting your golf score, struggling with crossword puzzles, or having
a loss of balance, could be a sign of low sodium. A new clinical trial
is seeking some older Americans to test a drug that may help seniors
whose brain function is impaired by low sodium.
Many of us go through our day without thinking
about water or sodium (salt) and the important role they play in our
health. Both of these are keys to how well our body functions and to
what happens to our body. Our body naturally controls its sodium and
water levels. When the level of sodium in the blood drops too low,
hyponatremia (low blood sodium) can develop.
(Read more news on low sodium below this story.)
Unless you are a marathon runner, youve probably
never heard of the condition. Marathon runners are at risk for
developing hyponatremia if they dont properly hydrate themselves during
a race.
Low blood sodium is also linked with other
conditions such as chronic heart failure, lung disease, liver disease,
and cancer. In addition, a persons sodium level naturally drops as they
age. Signs of the condition can range from a headache to seizures
depending on the persons sodium level.
Little is known about how low sodium affects brain
function or how to treat it.
Studies suggest that people with low sodium
experience difficulty thinking and concentrating compared with those who
have normal sodium levels, said Dr. Joseph Verbalis, Chief, Division of
Endocrinology and Metabolism at Georgetown University Hospital and a key
researcher of the effects of hyponatremia.
Mild hyponatremia often goes untreated or
undiagnosed because many patients believe the symptoms are part of the
normal aging process.
Verbalis and Dr. Miguel Franco of Memorial Clinical
Associates are Principal Investigators on the INSIGHT study involving
tolvaptan, an investigational drug being tested to determine if it may
help improve thinking, walking, and balance in older adults with low
sodium.
Men and women over the age of 50 who have been
diagnosed with mild hyponatremia are eligible to participate in the
INSIGHT study. Your doctor may need to do a simple blood test to see if
you can join.
If you would like to learn more about the INSIGHT
study, visit
www.insightsaltstudy.com or call 713-407-3076.
More news on low sodium
Serum sodium
predicts mortality 10 times higher in PAH patients
June 13, 2008 - Patients with pulmonary arterial
hypertension (PAH) - chronically high blood pressure in the blood
vessels of the lungs - whose serum (body fluid) sodium levels are low
(called hyponatremia, or HN) have a very poor chance of survival and a
high rate of right-heart failure (RHF), according to new research from
the University of Pennsylvania.
Low blood sodium is already known to indicate
advanced left heart failure but has never been demonstrated to be linked
to right heart failure before, such as that seen in patients with PAH.
The research appears in the second issue for June of the American
Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care
Medicine.
"This is the first study to show the powerful
prognostic significance of low blood sodium in these patients," said the
study's lead author, Paul R. Forfia, M.D., a cardiologist in the Heart
Failure/Transplant program and medical director of the Pulmonary
Hypertension Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
New study casts
further doubt on risk of death from higher salt intake
May 15, 2008 Contrary to long-held assumptions,
high-salt diets may not increase the risk of death, according to
investigators from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva
University. They reached their conclusion after examining dietary intake
among a nationally representative sample of adults in the U.S.
The Einstein researchers actually observed a
significantly increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD)
associated with lower sodium diets. They reported their findings in the
advance online edition of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
The researchers analyzed data from the Third
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), which was
conducted by the federal government among a nationally representative
sample of U.S. adults. These data were then compared against death
records that had been collected by the government through the year 2000.
The sample of approximately 8,700 represented American adults who were
over 30 years of age at the time of the baseline survey (1988-1994) and
were not on a special low-salt diet.
After adjusting for known CVD risk factors, such as
smoking, diabetes and blood pressure, the one-fourth of the sample who
reported consuming the lowest amount of sodium were found to be 80% more
likely to die from CVD compared to the one-fourth of the sample
consuming the highest level of sodium. The risk for death from any cause
appeared 24% greater for those consuming lower salt, but this latter
difference was not quite large enough to dismiss the role of chance.
Keep up with the latest news for senior citizens, baby
boomers
June
13, 2008 - Low sodium in the blood can make it harder to think and
focus, and it is common in older adults. Simple things such as
forgetting your golf score, struggling with crossword puzzles, or having
a loss of balance, could be a sign of low sodium. A new clinical trial
is seeking some older Americans to test a drug that may help seniors
whose brain function is impaired by low sodium.
June
12, 2008