Question

Mr. Macho. He is sitting at the bar with his friends. He is the sole surviving bachelor of his over 30 group of friends. He still lives in his parent’s house, is 31 years old, and exercises at the gym six days per week. He takes laxatives daily to keep his body weight down so he can maintain the same physique he had in high school. He's trying to impress his friends by eating 12 jalapeno peppers stuffed with cheese accompanied by an equal number of tequila shots.

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

The Lovers. They are sitting in the corner at a small table. Dante is finishing his masters’ degree in philosophy and plans to work at the nonprofit agency until he can form his own cult movement and ultimately run for a political office at the federal level to convert our government to Socialism. He's drinking his third cappuccino, which is the only thing he has had to drink all day. He has labored, slow, shallow breathing resulting from a gunshot wound to his chest when he was a teenager. He rolls his own cigarettes and smokes the equivalent of one pack per day.

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

Answer 1

Mr. Macho is at risk of dehydration, which in turn can affect fluid balance.

Taking too much laxatives can result in water loss leading to dehydration, and his habit of eating 12 jalapeno peppers stuffed with cheese accompanied by an equal number of tequila shots. all can cause dehydration and fluid imbalane like increased sodium concentation. Two main hormone affected would be ADH and Aldosterone.

In this condition fluid volume drops, in response to this adrenal gland release aldosterone which acts on the kidney to restore the imbalance, another hormone ADH is released from the pituitary which acts on the kidneys by inserting water channels in nephron of kidneys, thereby retaining water, the effect of these two hormones trys to restore normal water level and fluid balance.

His condition results in metabolic alkalosis, compensatory mechanism is the kidneys which will act to release hormone like aldosterone to retain sodium so that water can be reabsorbed..

Dante is at risk of dehydration and fluid imbalance.

Having too much cappucino, in addition to his habit of cigarette smoking and having no water through the day would have resulted in dehydratiton, the hormones affected by his life style are the same two hormones, ADH and Aldosterone, dehydration will cause his fluid volume to drop. The patient is at risk of respiratory acidosis, because of his labored and shallow brearthing, in this condition the patient will not be able to expell CO2, because of which CO2 accumulates in the body resulting in acidosis, as result of weak lungs the kidneys play a role in compensation, they do this by retaining bicarbonate and excreting hydrogen ion.