Fluids and Electrolytes
Homeostasis is the body’s way to maintain internal stability. Cells require certain conditions to function properly. The ability to produce energy is key to life. Animals eat food and take in liquids that the body breaks down to be used by cells to produce energy. Oxygen is required by cells to convert carbohydrates or sugars into energy. Fluids are responsible for the transportation of nutrients to cells and the transportation of waste products of energy production out of the body.
Fluids
About 60 percent of the adult body is made up of fluid. In this fluid is a mixture of water and ions. Cells contain fluid (intracellular fluid 1/3) but are also surrounded by fluid (extracellular fluid 2/3). There are two types of extracellular fluids, one is intravascular such as the fluid that helps blood flow throughout the body and the other is interstitial fluid the fluid that surrounds cells inside body tissues. Extracellular fluids are required to bring cells the necessary ions and nutrients to maintain life. For cells to carry out their functions the proper concentrations of ions, oxygen, glucose, amino acids and lipids must be available in the cellular environment. The fluids are also key to the transport of waste products out of the cell and out of the body; a build of these products can kill the cell if allowed to build up. (Guyton & Hall, 2000, p.3-4)
Intake and Output
The human body needs about 1500mL – 2500mL of water per day. Food contains some and most comes from fluid intake. Women have less water then men and the elderly have even less than women.
Everyday an average adult excretes water in feces, sweat, lungs exhale and urine. Fluid lost in sweat 8% but varies depending on activity and temperature. The...
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...nic, isotonic, hypotonic, crystalloid, and colloids are critical tools in the medical field. It is of the upmost importance that these tools be used cautiously and with the correct type of medical illness due to the harm they can cause. Each organ of the body does its part in helping with homeostasis of fluids and electrolytes.
Works Cited
Guyton, A. C., & Hall, J. E. (2000). Textbook of medical physiology (10th ed.). Philadelphia: Sunders.
Ignatavicius, D. D., & Workman, M. L. (2013). Medical-surgical nursing: Patient-centered collaborative care. St. Louis: Elsevier Saunders.
Crawford, A., & Harris, H. (2011). I.V. fluids: What nurses need to know. Lippincott's Nursing Center , 41(5), 30-38. doi:10.1097/01.NURSE.0000396282.43928.40
Critical care nursing made incredibly easy! (3rd ed.). (2012). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Fluid from the intravascular space shifts into the interstitial space surrounding the cells. This shift is caused by increased hydrostatic pressure within capillaries as the result of reduced liver function blocking blood flow. Increased capillary permeability from inflammation pushes albumin into the interstitial space, increasing interstitial osmotic pressure and deceasing capillary osmotic pressure. Due to decreased liver function, albumin is not longer readily made decreasing its presence in body. Without albumin, osmotic pressure will remain decreased within the plasma. As the body compensates for this loss of water and increased sodium in the intravascular space hypertonic alterations pull water from the intracellular fluid causing
Silverthorn DU. (2010). Human physiology: an integrated approach. 5th ed. San Francisco, calif.; London: Pearson/Benjamin Cummings. Pp 703-704.
Ignatavicius, D. D., & Workman, M. L. (2013). Medical-surgical nursing: patient-centered collaborative care (7th ed.). St. Louis: Elsevier Saunders.
Techniques." Journal of Postgraduate Medicine 56.2 (2010): 98-102. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
Ignatavicius, D.D. & Workman, M.L.(2010). Medical-Surgical Nursing: Patient-Centered Collaborative Care. (6th ed.). St. Philadelphia PA: Saunders Elsevier
Blood is filtered in the glomerulus and then water and waste is passed out as urine. (Edith Cowan University, 2001-2004)
Dialysis tubing is made from regenerated cellulose or cellophane, and is used in clinical circumstances to ensure that molecule have a filtered flow, and that larger solute molecules do not enter the dialysis tubing (Alberts, 2002). Like a cell membrane, dialysis tubing has a semi-permeable membrane, which allows small molecule to permeate through the membrane. Thus, the dialysis tubing mimics the diffusion and osmosis processes of the cell membrane (Alberts, 2002). Although the dialysis tubing has a semi-permeable membrane, which mimics a cell, its structure is different. The me...
Water is very important for your body. 50% of your body weight is water (“Safe Drinking Water: Tap Water, Bottled Water, & Water Filters.”).
... Medicine. 3rd ed. Vol.3. Detroit: Gale, 2006.2139-2141. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
Brunner, L.S. & Suddarth, D. S Textbook of Medical- Surgical Nursing, 1988 6th ed. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia
Lately, the trend is that nearly everyone carries a water bottle with them and sips all day long. But what does water really do for the body? Is it essential that people gulp down the prescribed “eight glasses of water a day” for optimal health and performance? A growing body of information now points to evidence that water is beneficial to your health.
Cells are living things that requires substances to be imported into the cell for growth and repair just as a human, or animal, needs to eat for growth and repair. Unlike the human or animal that has arms, jaws, or external tools to collect and consume food, the basic cell does not have any external appendages to readily obtain the substances it needs. This does not leave the cell without any way to obtain the required substances, obviously otherwise they would all be very short lived, and the ways they obtain substances differ in the required energy and the substance being obtained. Regardless of the way or type of substance, everything need to pass the cell membrane to enter or leave the cell.
Diffusion is caused by the concentration gradient, physical flow of material, molecules until the concentration gradient reaches a point of equilibrium. In both diffusion and osmosis, movement of molecules takes place up to a certain point when equilibrium – osmotic balance – is achieved. Osmoregulation is the process through which organisms maintain osmotic balance – a balance in the concentration of solutes and water across semipermeable membranes also called homeostasis. The importance of osmoregulation is to enable cells of take up water and nutrients while excreting wastes such as sweat and urine. Thus, osmoregulation enables organisms to maintain the optimal internal fluid
Water is an essential nutrient that our body requires every day. Without water human life cannot be sustained. Water deprivation kills faster than lack of any other nutrient. People do not think of water as a nutrient and don’t realize the important role of water in the body functions.
Potter, P. A., & Perry, A. G. (2009). Fundamentals of nursing (Seventh ed.). St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby Elsevier.