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Why salt restriction is not enough to lower blood pressure
Like cholesterol, health gurus have picked on sodium for years, but from a biological perspective, sodium is an ESSENTIAL nutrient, needing a conservation plan
If you’ve got high blood pressure – odds are you’ve been told
“Don’t eat salt”.
So you’re doing your best to cut back. Maybe you’ve taken the step to ban the salt cellar, from the kitchen table. And are paying a premium price, for low salt bacon and cheese.
Brownie points and black marks
This will have earned you brownie points, with your doctor, but your taste buds are unlikely to be impressed and your heart is probably, ambivalent.
Your kidney, might actually feel quite annoyed.
You see, on his very long list of key performance indictors is CONSERVE sodium. Sodium movements drive the movement of hundreds of chemicals………..
Surprised ?
Sodium is an essential nutrient
Like cholesterol, health gurus have picked on sodium for years, but from a biological perspective, sodium is seen as an ESSETIAL nutrient. Now, one of the reasons for the body’s obsession, with sodium, is historically it was a nutrient, that was hard to get.
It’s just not that high in REAL foods.
This is why Mother Nature gave us a SALT tooth.
You’ve got a salt palate
Our ancestors went to great lengths to GET salt and GETTING MORE, was what motivated Romans, to give up their freedoms and take a “job” working for the man emperor.
It’s also the reason, the body has a complex system, working to ensure that, enough sodium is retained. One of the star performers in this sodium preservation plan, is insulin.
Surprised ?
Insulin a salty old critter
We see insulin as the hormone in charge of sugar, but insulin is in charge of putting away the groceries………
And sodium is an important grocery.
Without it, cells have trouble getting other things, IN and OUT.
Unfortunately, if special precautions aren’t taken, sodium can slip out, every time you eat dinner. Eish !
Leaking sodium
No matter what you eat, it comes loaded with ions. There are sodium ions, potassium ions, calcium ions, magnesium ions, chloride ions…….
You get the picture.
The ions, that arrive in your digestive tract, don’t need much digesting and they’re tiny….they can slip through the cracks and crevices. So they are quickly absorbed………
A rush of water
As they rush into the blood, they make the blood more “concentrated” i.e. there are more ions and less water in the blood.
No problem………
Water quickly moves from inside cells into the blood, to dilute the blood and restore the balance. Oops.
Pressure builds
The movement of water into the blood vessels, means more fluid is in the pipes, but the pipes have a limited capacity.
Blood pressure rises.
Precipitating a scramble to dump some of the liquid.
Streaming out
The kidney obliges, taking instructions from a hormone (vasopressin), dispatched by the brain, to keep charge of these things and installs water pumps, to pump out the water.
As the water is pumped out, it can drag sodium ions with it.
No worries…….
Insulin to the rescue
Aldosterone, the hormone in charge of sodium levels, takes a keen interest in the operation, so does insulin. Insulin steps in, to help the kidney recover the sodium that’s been lost.
Between the two of them, they get the sodium balance “right”.
Excess is excreted with no impact on the overall sodium pool. And within an hour or so, everything is back to normal.
EVERYONE is happy.
Blood pressure is down. Insulin is down. Vasopressin is down. Aldosterone is down. Sodium is down. Potassium is down.
Well this is what happens when you’re not insulin resistant…..
A rescue gone wrong
But the scenario, is quite different, when you’re insulin resistant because insulin is high : morning, noon and night. Insulin’s need to hold onto the sodium, becomes an issue. Instead of just holding onto sodium, when sodium stores are vulnerable, the kidney holds onto it, ALL the time.
Pushing blood pressure higher. All the time !
Now, it doesn’t happen in everyone.
It takes the combination of “bad” genes, bad body chemistry and TOO LITTLE potassium, to have salt sensitive hypertension.
The way forward ?
You’re stuck with your genes, but you can work on fixing that bad body chemistry, that leaves insulin high : morning, noon and night. If you need help, with the body chemistry, download the Willpower Report, it’s free, to discover 10 tools you can use, to improve your insulin sensitivity.
The other thing you can do………………… is get more potassium in your dinner. By correcting the sodium to potassium ratio, a little more sodium is lost with dinner.
Further reading
The “safe” way to eat salty foods
A bowl of salty soup, will send your blood pressure up. If you’re salt sensitive, this is a reason to worry. But, you can speed up your biology, to avoid the problem….
Eat salt, your tongue and your heart, will like it
A low salt diet causes insulin resistance in everyone. Granted in salt sensitive’s, it lowers blood pressure, but more insulin resistance is never heart healthy
Sodium does cause the blood pressure to rise but mother nature is quite capable of “handling” this rise – provided you’re not salt sensitive