“Just” a pinch? Salt, your blood pressure and your health
¼ teaspoon of salt = 580 milligrams. A pinch. Doesn’t sound like much. And if that’s all you eat in a day and your blood pressure is normal, it isn’t much. We do need small amounts of salt.
Normal heart, left. Hypertensive heart, right, with thickened (hypertrophic) muscle More >>
© 2008 Nucleus Medical Art
How much salt is healthy? One teaspoon of table salt has about 2300 mg of sodium. A normal adult should consume under 2300 mg of sodium daily.
RISK FACTORS for CVD (cardiovascular disease: Heart attack & stroke)
If you have:
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1.hypertension
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2.high cholesterol
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3.diabetes
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4.are overweight
5. have a family history of high blood pressure, aim for under 1500 mg. daily, and consult your physician
Salt (sodium chloride), plus enough water to keep it in solution, is a vital part of our blood. Sodium is the control switch of a narrow dilution range in which cells can function.
All the sodium we need occurs naturally in food, vegetables and fruits. We don’t need a salt shaker. Especially since salt is added to most canned goods and processed meats, and like sugar it’s added to commercial food products so they’ll taste better.
What’s wrong with salt?
Too much salt causes hypertension, aka high blood pressure, which (picture a crimped hose) pounds the inner lining of arteries, creating conditions for cholesterol and calcium to clump, narrow your arteries, clot, and cause heart attack or stroke.
Excess salt leads to increased thirst and fluid intake to keep blood and body fluids at the right dilution. The vascular system (arteries, veins, and capillaries) is a closed system. Put more fluid into it and its pressure rises: High blood pressure (high BP, hypertension).
Some of our salt exists naturally in the foods we eat, and about 10 percent comes from adding salt or other sodium-containing condiments to foods while cooking or eating. But most of our salt — a surprising 80 percent — comes from eating prepared or processed foods
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80% of the salt in our diet comes from packaged foods
The three main target organs for habitual excess salt consumption - via high blood pressure - are the heart, brain, and kidneys.
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Stroke: Of the three kinds of stroke (clot in a cerebral artery, embolus to a cerebral artery, and hemorrhage from rupture of a cerebral artery), hemorrhagic is the most lethal. Picture again a garden hose suddenly bursting. The part of the brain supplied by that blood vessel dies.
TIPS if you’re trying to avoid salt:
MORE CHILDREN WITH UNDIAGNOSED HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
SALT in all processed & fast food
Cinnamon & ginger, garlic & tarragon... you won’t miss salt with these swoony aromatic spices
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Heart: High blood pressure also causes the heart to dilate, like blowing up a balloon too far - and then, struggling back, the heart muscle thickens (hypertrophy). This weakens the heart’s ability to pump blood, eventually leading to heart failure (CHF, congestive heart failure). Fluid collects in the legs and in the lungs, and everywhere eventually. It gets harder to walk and to breathe. -
Kidneys: Chronic high BP damages the filtration mechanism in the kidneys, leading to progressive kidney failure (ESRD, end-stage renal disease) and a life on dialysis machines.