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My mother has been on a low sodium diet since the 80's. My mother has been forgetful since 2007. Confusion started last month and went away for 3 weeks and recently came back. She is tired everyday and she gets nauseous. She just came back from the doctor. Her sodium level is just a little low. Could that cause her symptoms of confusion?

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Look at ALL the bloodwork, not just one item. Then factor in all the meds and interactions. You really need to go with her to the MD, take notes and ask questions. Don't rely on her faulty memory to tell you what the problem is.
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DEFINTITELY! My mother was so low on sodium she had to be kept in the hospital and at that time they said that that was why she was so confused. She was on sodium pills for 2 months to get the level up where they want it.
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Sodium is an electrolyte. When your electrolytes are out of balance, there is usually an underlying cause. Was she checked for a UTI? Was her kidney and heart dunction checked? Thyroid? A good eldercare doctor doesn't just look at the blood tests, they also look at how the patient is doing functionally.

I agree, go back to the doctor with her and make sure the doc knows she is NOT doing fine, which is almost certainly was mom is saying.
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My father-in-law was hospitalized (this was years ago) for fainting and other issues. It turned out it was simply low potassium.

As Bablou so wisely said sodium is an electrolyte (as is potassium). Balance of electrolytes is key. Another thing about sodium - it's being found in some studies that older people (in general) shouldn't be on low sodium diets. These one size fits all (and all ages) conclusions can be far off the mark.

The main thing is to go back to the doctor with your mother and say that she is not doing well. There is confusion. Could this be from an imbalance of some kind? An infection? A medication? Blood test can tell a lot, but the tests need to be read by a skilled professional who knows the meaning of the full panel.

Keep at it before you let them brush her off as having confusion because of "aging" or even dementia. Everything needs to be checked before coming to such a conclusion.

We'd love an update on what happens,
Carol
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Yes low sodium can cause confusion.
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Thanks. Great question. Never heard that low sodium could be a problem.
Great Answer too!!
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Yes Laura my mom too had sodium levels so low she was on a sodium tablet for several months. That + a UTI caused her to be so confused and even combative which was not her personality at all.
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Thank you everyone. My mother had blood tests which showed low sodium but I was told that it's not low enough to cause her confusion. Her doctor prescribed a half pill of zoloft for a week and then a full pill. I started salting her food a little bit two days ago. My father noticed that my mother is walking better. She was very confused for a longer period of the day yesterday until bedtime. I noticed that she is also very anxious so I started giving her the half zoloft yesterday like the doctor suggested. Her symptoms of confusion and tiredness don't seem like just dementia to me. They seem more like an imbalance or like something else is going on. She had brain scans two weeks ago, It will be almost a month before we get the results. Before my mother became confused she fell a few times.
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I would test her thyroid. The symptoms you describe are typical of hypothyroidism. It is important to remember that a body has a sodium-potassium pump which must be balanced. When you don't consume enough sodium, you will throw that out of balance. If she has been "forgetful" since 2007, then her dementia is progressing. What did her doctor say?
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My mother was checked for a UTI and she doesn't have one. She drinks a lot of cranberry juice.
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When my dad's sodium level was extremely low, he had tremors, and he kept falling asleep in the middle of conversations. He was hospitalized to get it under control. Ultimately, the treatment that was successful was not increased consumption of sodium (he also has congestive heart failure and shouldn't have a lot of salt), it was reduced consumption of liquids. Of course, reducing liquid consumption shouldn't be undertaken without advice from a doctor. Too little fluid can cause other serious problems. Dad's doctors gave us a daily limit (I can't remember the specific amount), and we measured every bit of fluid, every day. That included the liquids in soups, and so on.
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IF yuo typically use salt with iodine added, it could be that she's also experiencing iodine deficiency. A couple of years ago I had that (often misdiagnised as hypothyroidism - which requires Big Pharma med$); started taking an iodine supplemnet daily and was totally "cured" in 6 weeks. MOST standard US MDs are UNaware of the importance of iodine or what level your body really needs. I'd consider checking that and/or just giving her a low-level iopdine supplment to see if it helps her. Also - iodine absorption is blocked by cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, asparagus, brussels sprouts, cabbage, as well as by soy foods) so if she eats lots of those (I used to - part of my problem!) you should remove from her diet for a while.

Sadly, the great majority of American MDs know little to nothing about the effect of diet on our health. :(
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Thank you. That's interesting about the iodine. I will look into that also.
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I don't think it has to be much below the normal range of 135-145 to cause problems. In 2014 my dad was weak, confused and tired. Turns out he had the tri-fecta of elderly issues-dehydrated (low sodium), low blood pressure and anemic. His sodium level went from 136 to 129 in less than a month and you could definitely see the difference in him. This made his blood pressure too low, and the anemia on top of everything else really wiped him out.
Because of Dad's CHF we're constantly trying to balance his fluid intake & how much salt he eats. Your mom's doctor really needs to stay on top of it.
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LauraJF - If she is drinking a lot of cranberry juice, she is excreting more fluid along with her sodium. Cranberry juice contains a lot of sugars which will make one urinate more often. Again, have her thyroid checked and let her eat potato chips if she likes them. You can actually die from having your electrolytes off balance, so stay on top of this!
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Definite yes. My mom fell about 4 years ago and ended up in a nh for about a month and a half. Biggest problem was her sodium (and perhaps potassium) levels. It was a creep, she just seemed to be getting more and more tired, and we both just chalked it up to age..until she fell. She had to get more sodium, potassium, and salt tabs.
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Hyponatremia is the medical term for low sodium. It is a huge problem for which confusion is the main symptom. I'd never heard of it until my mom's recently hospitalization and subsequent 2 bouts with low sodium. It can be life threatening and needs to be treated by a kidney specialist (nephrologist). Salt tabs, Gatorade and pedialyte electrolyte drinks can keep it at bay.
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I found out when this happened with Dad that a lot of elderly people lose their sense of thirst. They also have trouble keeping track of how much they drink. Dad now has a big, measured mug, and I tell him to drink at least 2 of them a day. That plus some Gatorade everyday makes a big difference.
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I started salting my mother's food 4 days ago and I started giving her gatorade yesterday. My mother doesn't appear to be confused tonight. She was gagging and almost throwing up daily and she did throw up a few days ago. My father noticed that she is walking better. What has been happening is she complains of not feeling well then tired and sometimes dizzy then the confusion starts. A neighbor is a nurse and she and my siblings insist this is just dementia. My neighbor said that my mother complains about not feeling well because she realizes something is wrong, meaning the dementia. I think my mother complains about not feeling well and then gets confused because something is wrong, low sodium or something else. The doctor said that my mother's sodium isn't low enough to cause confusion. How low does it have to be? I would think that the fact that it is low means that it's not in balance like it should be.
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Balance is very important ! So if you are going to use salt, use one with balanced electrolytes, like Mortons Lite Salt . It actually has more potassium than sodium, plus magnesium and calcium. Very similar to the proportions in ringer's lactate, an IV fluid. Just don't go over board; be balanced.
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If she got better and then got worse again, I don't believe it is dementia progressing. I would agree with babalou. Read that post. and heed her advice. Have your mother's thyroid checked because it could be hypothyroid symptons due to iodine deficiency And the ubiquitous UTI is always a possibility, especially with nausea, forgetfulness and dizziness.
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Mom had really low sodium levels in the last few months of her life. I mean critically low. Apparently it was a big factor in her confusion. She managed to get the levels back up some during a hospital stay and that helped a lot. But when her sodium was low _and_ was battling a UTI, she was really a mess.
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I have been salting my mother's food for 4 days and giving her gatorade for three days she has had no confusion today. It might be a coincidence but I will continue giving her salt and gatorade each day and update again soon.
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YES, low blood sodium can definitely cause confusion! My father, primary caregiver for my mother with Alzheimer's (at the time), had hip replacement surgery in January. The anti-seizure breakthrough drug he was on, Trileptal, lowered his blood sodium, led to hallucinations or "delirium" after his surgery. It took a while to get it out of his system, but once the Trileptal was out of his system (and another seizure drug added), he slowly came back around. There are many puzzle pieces, as others have suggested. Good luck!
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The normal range for blood sodium levels is 135 to 145 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L). My mother was at 129 and the doctor told her to eat more foods with sodium... cheese, soup V8 etc. Recently she was hospitalized... it went to 116 and she had a seizure. Her blood pressure med was known to lower sodium so they took her off that one. She's now at 133 and shows great improvement. We changed her diet to include daily intake of soup and or V8 and protein. Some people are ok at 130 where others might be quite confused so it depends on the person. UTIs do cause confusion as well and is common with the elderly. Find yourself a real good nephrologist.
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Thank you everyone for your helpful replies. I checked my mother's blood pressure last night and it was high so I'm going to cut back on the salt. My mother was complaining about burning eyes for a few months and when I asked her yesterday if her eyes are burning she said no. I asked her a few more times and she still said no. Gatorade has potassium in it and I read that low potassium can lead to burning eyes. Maybe the Gatorade is helping her. I will continue to give her a glass of Gatorade each day but stop salting her food and keep monitoring her blood pressure. My mother is very tired each day. We cooked steak for her last night. Hopefully the protein will help.

I wish we had more help for her. It's a few more weeks until we receive the results of her brain scans. I can't imagine why we have to wait so long for the results. This has been such a scary time with the changes in her dementia which led to her confusion.

A lot of people want me to accept that this is the progression of her dementia. I don't want to give up on my mother. She improved for three weeks until her brain scans two weeks ago. She is showing improvement again for the past two days. She is still asleep and I don't know what to expect for today.
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Check B12 levels too. Low B12 can cause hallucinations and other cognitive irregularities that present as confusion. The remedy is very simple, and the B12 IV route is quickest. Two family members were deeply affected when this simple check was overlooked. At one hospital B12 was routinely checked in elderly patients on admission, but that protocol was not in place for patients admitted through the ER.
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Thank you for the suggestion. My family wants me to stop looking into causes of my mother's confusion but I will try to look into the B12 IV if it will help.
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Yes, sodium levels need to be kept in check. My mother was so crazy about salt intake that she never enjoyed her food!
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Hi all - this is a very interesting thread. Laura, keep at it; maybe talk about it less with your other loved ones if they're going to poo-poo you! I agree with others, nutrition just doesn't get enough airtime. My mother's had bad balance now for months and I'm going to try some of the things mentioned here, because three doctors have seen her recent full panel and not one brought up the chemical levels. She stopped taking vitamins when she started prescription drugs, which I don't get and keep asking her about. Good luck, Laura.
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