Few would argue that the Western diet contains too much salt. Not just the salty, processed foods that are so readily available at convenience stores and even gas stations that we probably shouldn’t be eating anyway, but also all the salt we add to our meals.
In fact, it is often observed that people add salt to their food before even eating it.
Although the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 say that we are supposed to consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, Americans consume more than 3,400 milligrams per day, far more than in the 1970s. The problem is, according to the US Centers. Illness Control and Prevention (CDC), high sodium intake is correlated with high blood pressure which, in turn, is correlated with the risk of heart disease and stroke.
However, according to an article published in the Daily of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2011, questions remain about the risks and correlations.
The World Health Organization recommends a sodium intake of less than 2 [grams] per day, a level that is largely based on projections made from relatively small, short-term clinical trials evaluating the effects of sodium restriction on blood pressure in primary prevention populations,” the authors of the journal article wrote. NEVER.
“However, the findings of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association between sodium intake and CV [cardiovascular] events, have been contradictory. For example, while some have reported a positive association between sodium intake and CV mortality, others have not, and some have reported an inverse association.”
While few medical sources dispute the links between excess sodium and high blood pressure, low-salt diets may have counterintuitive effects on cholesterol.
Cholesterol, which is also known as bad cholesterol, as opposed to HDL, high-density lipoprotein, the so-called good cholesterol, has been shown to rise on a low-salt diet.
An article in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, part of a daily which includes reviews, protocols, editorials, and supplements, studied the effects of a low-sodium diet on blood pressure and other disease risk factors, including cholesterol and triglycerides. The study found that reduced sodium caused a 2.5 percent increase in cholesterol and a 7 percent increase in triglycerides, a type of fat found in the blood.
Research in 2018 in the journal Medicine Baltimore found a similar inverse correlation between low sodium and high cholesterol in hypertensive women with excess weight, but no statistically significant correlation for hypertensive women without excess weight.
“The mechanisms associated with the changes in these lipids appear to be related to the fact that limited sodium intake reduces body water content and, in an attempt to reverse the low plasma volume, increases epinephrine, renin, and angiotensin. ”, the authors wrote.
“These hormones inhibit insulin, causing insulin resistance and consequently high insulin levels, compromising lipid metabolism and increasing blood cholesterol.”
More about insulin resistance and diabetes
“Type 2 diabetes is increasing worldwide at epidemic proportions… placing a significant burden on the health care system,” research in the daily Diabetes reads. ”It is now generally accepted that insulin resistance and beta cell dysfunction are important factors involved in the development of diabetes”.
However, what role, if any, do low-salt diets play in the current scourge of diabetes?
“The literature on salt intake and insulin sensitivity presents a mixed picture, as some studies have shown an increase, while others have shown a decrease, in insulin action as sodium intake increases. “, a research published in the journal daily Clinical science reads.
“We propose that the 4- to 5-fold increase in serum aldosterone and the greater increase in plasma norepinephrine concentration after the low-salt intervention compared to the high-salt period may have contributed to the differences in sensitivity to insulin after adjustment in dietary sodium. consumption.”
Translation: Low sodium made insulin resistance worse.
“Low sodium diets may negatively affect insulin resistance,” research in the American Journal of Medicine reads.
Questions about cardiovascular benefits
While the cardiovascular benefits of a low-salt diet are widely believed, they are also sometimes questioned. Research in America Daily of Medicine states that “there is evidence that a low-sodium diet may lead to a worse cardiovascular prognosis in patients with cardiometabolic risk and established cardiovascular disease.”
Research published in NEVER sought to assess whether sodium, as determined by 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, could predict or affect health outcomes and blood pressure. The researchers found that a low-sodium diet could seriously worsen patients’ symptoms.
“In this population-based cohort, systolic blood pressure, but not diastolic pressure, changes over time and aligns with the change in sodium excretion, but this association did not translate into increased risk of hypertension or complications CVD. Lower sodium excretion was associated with higher CVD mortality,” they wrote.
hyponatremia
Some may remember hearing of endurance athletes, especially marathon runners, suffering from “hyponatremia,” or low blood sodium levels. Sometimes disguised as dehydration, the condition can cause headaches, seizures, coma, and even death. In athletes, hyponatremia can result from drinking too much water without replacing the sodium lost through exertion and sweat. In the elderly, the condition can result from medications that lower sodium levels in the blood.
After studying endurance athletes, recent research in borders of Nutrition states that “recommending that athletes’ fluid intake in endurance events be a function of their thirst almost completely prevented the development of hyponatremia,” a fairly easy “fix” compared to other medical problems out there. Of course, the same is not true of hyponatremia in the elderly, which is probably much more complicated.
The experts say
“Many things in life and especially in medicine, if we find that too much of something can be harmful, then our natural reflex is to cut it out completely,” said Dr. May Hindmarsh, who, with her husband, Tim, practices emergency medicine and operates the “BSfreeMDhe told The Epoch Times.
“However, too little sodium is also harmful, and possibly more so than too much. There has been this push to reduce salt intake, eliminate it, and put people on very low sodium diets, which have been shown to be just as harmful, if not more so.
“Hypertension is more likely to be caused by a low-salt diet because it causes insulin resistance and increases stress hormones like adrenaline and norepinephrine and artery-hardening hormones.
“The other issue is what kind of salt people are eating and what is in it. Processed foods are loaded with sodium, but also with many unhealthy products, such as high fructose corn syrup, preservatives and other chemicals.
Dr. Tim Hindmarsh told The Epoch Times: “Excessive water consumption, especially if not combined with increased sodium intake, can lead to hyponatremia, a potentially fatal complication of being low in salt.
“This is so easy to achieve that the Ironman Hawaii Triathlon has had multiple cases a year of hyponatremia due to low sodium intake combined with drinking too much tap water. All this while working out for up to 18 hours in the Hawaiian sun. No one can eat an ultra-low-salt diet and survive, period.”
doctor bill wilsonfamily physician and author of Brain Drain, agrees.
“Salt it shouldn’t be the focus when it comes to common medical problems like high blood pressure,” he told The Epoch Times. “Inflammation is clearly driving the bus when it comes to many common chronic diseases.”
conclusion
Clearly, the jury is still out on the benefits and risks of low sodium diets. Your doctor, of course, is the best guide to the role of sodium in your diet, as long as he or she is up to date on the various findings on salt intake. Make sure your doctor is considering how conditions you may have are affected by sodium levels, such as salt-sensitive high blood pressure.
Too much sodium can be harmful to our health, as we are often told, but apparently too little is sometimes a problem too.
.
