Question

Sally loves everything sweet and suffers from a moderate to severe anxiety problem. She also loves carbonated drinks and frequently drinks soda and water. She also drinks no less than two 12 oz. glasses of water with bicarbonate soda every day because her friend told her it was good for her skin. Sally takes 10-12 tablets of TUMS per day for the “calcium” and she likes the taste. She is eating a candy cane ice cream sundae with marshmallow sauce accompanied by an orange sherbet Sunkist soda float. She’s beginning to nervously hyperventilate while listening to Dante as he begins pontificating again about the need for Communism in the United States.

Questions: Is Sally at risk for water intoxication, dehydrated, or in fluid balance? What factors are affecting her body fluid level and which hormones for fluid balance are affected by her lifestyle? Is her fluid volume dropping? If so, which hormones are released to compensate for this loss? Is Sally at risk for respiratory or metabolic / alkalosis or acidosis? What is the compensatory mechanism working to rectify her self-induced condition?

Mr. Salty. This is not his lucky day. He just turned 50 and it’s time for his first Colonoscopy. He is consuming 4 liters of the horrid hypertonic solution of sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, and potassium chloride. He’s had dibs on the men’s room all afternoon.

Questions: Is Mr. Salty at risk for water intoxication, dehydrated, or in fluid balance? What factors are affecting his body fluid level and which hormones for fluid balance? Is his fluid volume dropping? If so, which hormones are released to compensate for this loss? Is Mr. Salty at risk for respiratory or metabolic / alkalosis or acidosis?

Answer 1

#. Soda can exacerbate the problem because it results in more fluid when the carbonation breaks down. Acute fluid intoxication, also known as water intoxication or water poisoning, occurs when the electrolytes in cells in the bloodstream and brain neurons become so diluted they can no longer function.

#. Factors affecting her body fluid level is carbonated drinks and sweets

#. ADH hormone is the hormone for fluid balance which is affected by her lifestyle.

#.