You need some salt! (Too many veggies and not enough salt is bad!)

[Guest guest]

(Hey guys, I just thought it might be a good idea to post my

experiences with getting too little salt. If you tend to " veg out "

like I do, as well as drink lots of fluids, you may develop some

interesting side effects...........)

Increasing salt completely fixed my pedal edema. I went to the doctor

about it some time back, and we both approached this situation from

a " protein synthesis deficiency " standpoint, but everything came back

negative on that. What never crossed our radar was the fact that it

could be sodium-intake related, as that is pretty absurd to consider

when compared to the standard American diet. But sodium is what

indeed fixed it. I initially thought my caloric intake itself might

have been too low, because the edema would subside when I stopped CR

for brief periods, but that was apparently due to the increased

sodium intake during a return to ad lib and not from the caloric

intake.

Additionally, I have some abdominal distension (simliar to what Micky

Snir describes) that comes and go, and sodium intake seems to have

improved that situation as well. My veggie intake is so high though I

am not expecting these issues to completely disappear, because my

total water intake is going to be high regardless.

However, the most important observation I have made is an observation

that Micky has also contributed, in that I am significantly less

hungry upon increasing salt. Whereas previously I could go through 4-

7 500 gram cans of sweet peas no salt added without feeling full (!),

I can now eat 1-2 500 gram cans of salt added green beans and feel

stuffed. I believe that I was manifesting an actual " hunger for

salt " , as Micky has described. This probably is not a universal

phenomenon, as some of you guys are self-avowed " salt avoiders " , but

in my case it has made a world of difference in terms of satiety. I

was at some points concerned about inducing a stomach rupture eating

more and more no salt food! But now I just " gave up " trying to

completely restrict salt, and have watched everything improved, while

my blood pressure remains in the 90/60 " basement " .

I am glad that Dean has entertained the idea of evaluating salt's

impact on his implementation of CR. If there is anyone with

the " scientific rigor " to do this issue justice, it is Dean, with his

relentlessly investigative approach to things!

An important issue to understand is that if the " salt reservoir " in

the tissues is depleted, then the body will encounter difficulty in

controlling water flux throughout various body compartments.

Additionally, the renal medulla's capacity to concentrate urine is

based upon its salinity, so if you flush out your kidneys too

thoroughly, it may become more difficult for your kidneys to produce

concentrated urine, which would translate into a " nonstop urination-

sensation " marathon.

In relation to the paleo man, another important thing to consider is

that back in the old days, the only water people drank was what they

could carry away from water sources, or water they actually drank

straight from a water source. [Ever seen that PBS special Frontier

House? Not paleo, but still old-school nonetheless ] I think in

today's environments, with plumbing and Seven-Elevens, we are

guzzling liquids at rates that the paleo man would consider

unimaginable. Couple this with low-cal veggie intakes that paleo man

might also consider unimaginable, and you are probably going to get

some interesting phenomena in certain predisposed individuals.

And the link between sodium intake and cardiovascular health is not

as cut and dried as people would think. Calories are obviously going

to trump whatever effect sodium is exerting.

As for the dangers of the opposite end of things, here is an MRI

study below where they studied hyponatremic patients suffering from

primary polydipsia, a mostly psychiatric condition where you

literally drink water constantly for no discernable reason. What they

found was that the intermittant yet constantly recurring hyponatremic

state increased the size of the " holes in their heads " , the

ventricles. Increased ventricle size is associated with all sorts of

long-term problems, as it understandably represents " less gray matter

reserve " to work with to fight senesence-induced cognitive

deterioration.

Bigger holes in my head doesn't sound like a good thing to me! I'll

risk the salt intake regardless of what some high-falutin'

cardiologists publish about salt when they are obsessing about some

of their more recalcitrant congestive heart failure patients!

Now where is my salt shaker............

crdude35768@...

Am J Psychiatry 1999 Jun;156(6):958-60 Related Articles, Books,

LinkOut

MRI changes during water loading in patients with polydipsia and

intermittent hyponatremia.

Leadbetter RA, Shutty MS Jr, Elkashef AM, Kirch DG, Spraggins T, Cail

WS, Wu H, Bilder RM, Lieberman JA, Wyatt RJ.

Clinical Studies Unit, Western State Hospital, Staunton, Va., USA.

robert.leadbetter@...

OBJECTIVE: Patients with polydipsia and intermittent hyponatremia

have greater ventricle-brain ratios (VBRs) than matched patients

without polydipsia and intermittent hyponatremia and normal subjects.

Unlike previous studies, this study controlled for the impact of

water loading when examining the volume of intracranial structures.

METHOD: Under controlled conditions, eight male schizophrenic

patients with polydipsia and intermittent hyponatremia were first

assigned to either normal fluid intake or oral water loading and then

the alternative condition the following day. Magnetic resonance

imaging (MRI) volumetric measurements were made with the use of a

standardized protocol. RESULTS: During water loading, total VBR and

lateral ventricle volume significantly decreased by 13.1% and 12.6%,

respectively. A strong association between change in serum sodium

concentration and change in VBR was noted across conditions.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that 1) water loading does not

account for the diminished brain volume observed in patients with

polydipsia and intermittent hyponatremia in previous studies, and 2)

hyponatremia can significantly alter brain morphology on MRI.

PMID: 10360142 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

crddude35768@...