Is salt the cause of high blood pressure, The sodium myth.

The importance of sodium ions in our body is it really bad??

The main source of sodium in our diet is table salt. That is chemically sodium chloride. Our daily requirement of sodium in our diet is approximately 1000mg. it is always approximate because there is a bit of variation in the required amount depending on the person’s gender. Age, body weight, etc.

One fact to keep in mind is that the main source of sodium called sodium chloride is composed of two elements. Actually, 23 g of sodium added into 35.5g make up sodium chloride by ratio. So actually we are getting less than 50 percent of sodium from total sodium chloride intake. Secondly, sodium chloride is an essential mineral that is soluble in water as well. This means excess urination can help remove excess salt from your body effectively.

SO

“How much salt does your body need?”

AND is sodium really not so good for health and maintaining weight???

1. Sodium and blood pressure

 

Sodium maintains the balance of fluids in our body

Water makes up 50-75 percent of the total body weight of humans. Out of which one-third are found outside the cells as extracellular fluid and two third are present inside our bodies. The body needs a particular concentration of fluids that is maintained with help of sugar electrolytes etc.

Sodium levels in dehydration

When we drinking in too much water and take less amount of sodium in our diet as most people recommend, we are actually flushing out extra salt from the body. And water is also not going to stay without salt, so we will be sodium deficient as well as dehydrated too. So we develop a condition called hyponatremia or in other words sodium deficiency. This causes the brain to dehydrate and shrink in size.

High levels of sodium:

On the other hand, excess sodium causes the brain cells to take in more water and swell. This is a condition called hypernatremia. So a healthy balance of sodium has to be maintained that is between 135-145 m mol/liter.  

2.  Electrolyte

The prime function of sodium is its role as an electrolyte. As electrolytes, sodium helps the transmission of nerve impulses throughout the body. The nerve impulse is an electric signal through which the whole body is in coordination with our brain.

Sodium and potassium pumps are involved in this process. We need almost four times more quantity of potassium than sodium.

Does salt make you retain water?

 If someone is having a problem with water retention, it is definitely because of high levels of sodium. So rather than reducing sodium elevating the levels of potassium by restoring the balance.

Secondly drinking a lot of water as mentioned before will help remove excess sodium from the body. Through urination. So it is not always recommended to reduce the consumption of sodium, as it is water soluble and can be flushed out.

Is salt the cause of high blood pressure?  

There are fewer studies reporting a chance of having high blood pressure because of high sodium levels. But in these studies, the sugar levels were also elevated. So the possible cause can be sugar as well. So such studies do not provide a shred of evidence for their argument. Simply more research is actually revealing no or very less impact of salt on blood pressure.