Salt for Life

Salt has a bitter sweet relationship with the general population. The reason for the relationship stems from health concerns most people attribute to salt added to their diets. The average person only needs a minimum of 500 mg per day. The maximum is about 2300 mg per day. Research indicates Americans consume over 3500 mg of salt per day. Too much!

ON The Positive Side

Salt is the key to a delicious tasting meal. It adds that extra something to a meal that makes it taste just right. From a medical point of view, salt is essential to good health. It is needed to prevent certain illnesses. And it is needed to help sustain life through organs functioning properly. Next to blood, salt is needed to sustain life through the saline in body fluids.

How Salt is Integrated into Our Lives

A person's body makeup, genetics, and life style determines how much salt is needed by the individual. Salt is naturally regulated in a healthy body. The regulator is the brain. The cerebral cortex sends signals that create a need for salt. That is the trigger to eat something salty. It also creates thirst. In a healthy person, excess salt is naturally eliminated.

Then there are people who view salt as a negative influence on their health. Hypertension and high blood pressure are associated with salt intake. If they wish to avoid heart attacks, strokes, and even death, their salt intake must be dramatically reduced and monitored. The consequences of unmanged salt intake are high. The individuals join the ranks of people who pay over $30 Billion annually in medical costs and inability to live a normal life.

Salt is an important electrolyte. A deficiency in salt consumption could result in death and other health challenges. Salt is required by the body to:

• maintain a certain level of moisture in human cells
• it is required to help with potassium absorption
• it helps carry carbon dioxide from the tissue to the lungs
• it helps the body fight infection

How many people believe salt is the same as sodium chloride? They are not the same. Salt is an ingredient. Sodium chloride is a nutrient. Salt is a source of sodium chloride.

Sodium Chloride may be found in plants and in animals. Chloride may be found in plants. Foods that contain higher amounts of chloride include olives, lettuce, rye, tomatoes, celery and seaweed. And potassium chloride is found in most foods.

• Oral Hydration Therapy An important process for maintaining hydration in humans is Oral Hydration Therapy (OHT). It is a combination of salt, water, and sugar that is administered to the individual. OHT is recognized as one of the most important medical advances of this century.
• Hypothermia Treatment of hypothermia is managed with a salt solution. Hypothermia is a loss of electrolytes mainly through perspiration, diarrhea or over hydration.

Over hydration through water is also called "water intoxication." Medically it is called "Hypothermia." A person experiencing hypothermia may have severe nausea, muscle cramps, disorientation, confusion and seizures. Sometimes death occurs or the person goes into a coma. Athletes avoid hypothermia by drinking sports drinks that contain salt.

Real Life example of Hypothermia.

A few years ago, a local radio station promoted a popular electronic game through a contest. The contest required contestants to drink as much water as they could without urinating during the competition. A young mother of toddlers won the game. The cost of the game for her was the lost of her life. She died from hypothermia. She consumed too much water and did not allow her body to release the accumulation of the liquid from her body.

• Saline Hospitals use salt through a saline solution. It is applied intravenously for a variety of medical conditions. The goal of the hospital is to bring the electrolytes back into balance at the cellar level. They use the saline solution to bring the hydration back to normal. Patients with emergencies ranging form severe diarrhea to heart failure may receive a saline intravenous solution.
• Wounds A salt solution is often used to cleanse wounds.

• Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Doctors believe the cause of CF is the result of a deformed protein. It prevents chloride outside the cell from receiving important moisture.
• Kidneys In the elderly, kidneys retain insufficient amounts of sodium. The results is a tendency to experience hypothermia. Elderly are prompted to maintain a stable sodium level in their bodies.

• Child Birth Women were once advised to avoid salt in their diets. Studies show low salt intake during pregnancy often results in increased chances of still-births. And for some women,the baby is born below average weight. Now women are encouraged to consume normal amounts of salt during their pregnancy

• Diabetes Research shows a diet low in salt contributes to Type 2 diabetes. The low salt consumption inhibits the body's ability to absorb glucose.
  

Salt is an ingredient most people automatically add to their meal. Seldom do they check to see if there is already enough salt in the food. That is where the problem comes into play. They end up using too much salt. Before you know it, they are experiencing challenges to  their health. They've consumed too much salt. They may not realize people only need a minimum of 500 mg of salt per day. Most people, especially Americans consume over 3500 mg of salt daily.

On the other hand, not enough salt in the diet is just as dangerous. Without the proper amount of salt, people expose themselves to avoidable health problems. Many organ and tissue diseases are due to the lack of salt in their diets.

A rule of thumb to live by is moderation. Manage the amount of salt added to the diet and there is a great chance the appropriate amount of salt will be consumed for as required by a healthy body.

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