Electrolyte Profile

When something suggests your salt and water balance has slipped: recurring cramps, palpitations, unexplained weakness or confusion, a spell of vomiting or diarrhoea, a heavy training block in the heat, or a new prescription for a diuretic or heart medication.

Sodium sets how much water your body retains and underpins blood pressure. Potassium keeps nerve and muscle cells, including heart muscle, firing correctly. Chloride moves with sodium and helps hold your acid-base balance steady, which is why all three are measured together.

Sometimes, though cramps have many causes: dehydration, unaccustomed exercise, medication and circulation among them. This panel checks one of the treatable explanations; if the levels are normal, your doctor can move on and look at the others rather than guessing.

It is a reasonable thing to raise with your doctor. Diuretics work by changing how much salt and water the kidneys hold on to, and potassium in particular can move as a result, which is why people on them are often monitored.

Sodium usually tells the clearest story, because sweat carries salt away and replacing it with plain water alone dilutes what is left. Chloride tends to follow sodium, and the pair gives your doctor a reading to set against your symptoms and what you drink on a training day. A blood sample reflects the morning it was taken, not the month behind it.

Its normal range is narrow and the heart is sensitive to movement in either direction. The result is also easy to disturb in the sample itself, so the draw technique and getting the tube to the laboratory promptly both matter more here than for most tests.

Only in part. Electrolyte levels are one of the things the kidneys regulate, but assessing kidney function needs markers such as creatinine and urea: those sit in our kidney function panel, which your doctor may prefer if the kidneys are the real question.

In substance it does not. The Electrolytes test covers the same sodium, potassium and chloride, from the same serum sample, at the same AED 199, with the same physician-reviewed report. Book whichever listing you reach first; the testing and the result are identical.

No fasting is needed. Eat and drink as you usually do and keep taking prescribed medication unless your doctor has told you otherwise: just avoid drinking an unusually large amount of water immediately before the appointment.

AED 199 covers all 3 tests, free home sample collection anywhere in Dubai 7 days a week, and a physician-reviewed Smart Report within 24 hours. If you would like help choosing between this and a broader panel, you can ask our care team.