Why would a person with hypernatremia be confused and disoriented?
Perhaps this will explain Hypernatremia is an electrolyte disturbance consisting of an elevated sodium level in the blood (compare to hyponatremia, meaning a low sodium level). The most common cause of hypernatremia is not an excess of sodium, but a relative deficit of free water in the body. For this reason, hypernatremia is often synonymous with the less precise term dehydration. Water is lost from the body in a variety of ways, including perspiration, insensible losses from breathing, and in the feces and urine. If the amount of water ingested consistently falls below the amount of water lost, the serum sodium level will begin to rise, leading to hypernatremia. Rarely, hypernatremia can result from massive salt ingestion, such as may occur from drinking seawater. Ordinarily, even a small rise in the serum sodium concentration above the normal range results in a strong sensation of thirst, an increase in free water intake, and correction of the abnormality. Therefore, hypernatremia m
