Salt? Health issues, blood pressure, other?

[G]

First off I have done a little research and am looking for opinions of those that know more than me, so please read my post first and no "Salt kills kittens, don't be a user!" style posts, ta.

I've been trying to be fairly good recently, however especially with a penchant for subways, my salt intake is way higher than recommended.
I've always been a bit sceptical about the issues around Salt and it seems that my scepticism may prove to have some credibility.
The main issue seems to be the link of salt to high blood pressure, which then leads to various other health problems later on.
I didn't look into detail, but even the most comprehensive study on this subject appears to be a bit flawed - with people who were explained the risks and kept to a low-salt diet having a lot less problems. However of course a low salt diet tends to be generally better in lots of other ways too.

Anyway, my thought was that if I kept an eye on my blood pressure, via some of the cheapish blood pressure systems you can get, is there any serious worries about a relatively high salt diet?

[Finglonga]

I was told I couldn't have an operation because my sodium level was too low. I was given salt tablets to bring it back up.

I was also told that (excuse the pun), take everything you hear about too much salt is bad for you with a pinch of salt as most this research is not accurate and they go for the cautious option.

I love salt in/on food as it brings out the foods flavour, without it the taste is bland.

Take eggs and cholesterol, for years there was evidence they were linked, now it seemes they got it all wrong.
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[G]

Quite a few of the things I've read have suggested you get a 'tolerance' to salt, so if you cut it out, after a month or so your body adapts and you are back to similar levels of taste-fullness than without salt.

But good info (maybe just saying this because it agrees with my conclusions ).

[Itchy]

In Japan everything is loaded with Salt and MSG , yet Japanese people live longer than UK people even though they have incredible levels of work related stress.
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[Mudskipper]

I've been on medication for hypertension for nearly 8 years now.

In my case, I was a relatively healthy eater, moderate drinker, non smoker, took regular exercise before it was diagnosed. Doctors seem to think it's heriditary (from my Mum's side) although every doctor I see has been surprised that I've got it that young.

My BP has been fairly settled (albeit medicated) for the last few years, during which I now smoke, drink more than I should and eat far too much salt. All the healthy crap didn't help it, so I thought I may as well enjoy myself.

Every checkup they ask the same questions, do you smoke/ever smoked, do you eat a lot of salt, do you get regular exercise...always answer no-no-yes...

Salt is important, I'd rather be able to taste the difference and monitor the amounts by cooking and adding at the table myself though, rather than unknown quantities in bought food, like your subways.

I think it's worth keeping an eye on, but not getting all spazzy about buying special 'low salt' foods as they usually taste shit and have extra crappy additives in.

Finglonga's eggs point is a good one. Week to week a foodstuff can go from causing strokes to preventing cancer.

Not sure about those home machines, heard they can be so unreliable as to be useless, or even get you all stressed because of the readings it's giving.

I think I do remember one machine was recommended though, it was a quite pricey electronic one, can't remember the name though.

Best off trying to get your BP checked at the doctors twice a year or so, if that's possible? Not sure.
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[G]

Subway do list what salt they've got in them; I tend to have 2 12" subway clubs a day, which comes out at 14.8g... a tad over the 'recommended' 6g a day.
However, of course as with other 'RDA's, speed limits and other silly arbitrary limits, they make little differentiation on the individual etc

I don't believe I've had high blood pressure before - don't think it's ever been commented upon anyway. Wouldn't really want to spend a lot on a tester thingy and probably not worth it if they have particularly questionable precision.

I was actually trying to make a moderate sized chicken and bacon (ok, some salt in there) salad before work, but it was a reasonable amount of work and was leaving me with not enough carbs/calories, while the lighter subways are about right and are quicker/easier .
It's mostly on my whole trying to lose a bit of weight thing, so will probably be a bit less bothered on 'balanced' food when I get to around the target weight.

[Visitor Q]

Least you know they're salty. Always amazing me the amount of people who class them as health foods

As for blood pressure, I won't bore you with the biology/chemistry of it, but it does stand to reason that too much Sodium Chloride will play havoc with your BP. After that its whether you believe the associated problems.

But as I alsos say, it's like the thin smokers, the obese non-smokers, the jogging druggies or any other mishmash of healthy and unhealthy... We all have vices. It's only when you don't have balance I'd worry (Ie excercise lowers BP).

That said, I don't really buy in to all this crap anyway so hey hum. As said, keep an eye on it.
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[Tonka]

I think that it was always billed as hardening the arteries to cause high BP but not sure about how or why this occurs. I am aware of the opposite (think it's hyponatremia) that has very rarely occurred in runners drinking too much water too quickly after a long run/race and diluting the body salts to a dangerous level.

I think that it's like anything - our bodies are really very clever at monitoring what they need if we are sensible and give them the chance by doing everything in moderation. If you exercise quite a bit you'll be sweating out a fair bit. (When we were kids Mum made us have a salt/sugar drink to stop us getting dehydrated )

As for the BP monitoring my Dad uses a little one from Lloyds - it's certainly not the best, but if you use it just as a check it can be useful. He had to take readings throughout the day and take the mean of 3 readings each time.
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[G]

https://www.bpassoc.org.uk/microsites/salt/Home/Whysaltisbad/Saltseffects
Too much salt causes water retention which leads to high blood pressure.
High blood pressure over long periods causes arteries to strengthen to hold the high pressure in. The act of doing this also reduces available space for blood to flow which then increases blood pressure.
So, it seems if you've got an appropriately low blood pressure in the first place, it's less of an issue.

Other things also suggest that it's your balance of sodium to potassium, so taking more potassium may also balance things out?

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

As long as you don't do have anything to excess in your diet you'll not have any problems. What "excess" would classed as is a fluid concept though.
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[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

[stinkwheel]

My personal oppinion is:

High blood pressure is not good for your heart.

If you have high blood pressure, reducing your sodium intake can help lower it without having to resort to statins.

If you do not have high blood pressure, what are you worried about?

I have also maintained in a strictly tongue-in-cheek manner that if you have a high fat diet, you ought to eat plenty of salt too to bump up your blood pressure and make sure you get enough blood through your narrowed arteries... So take salt on your chips.
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[Phoenix]

If you do a lot of excercise (or just get sweaty) then you're constantly losing salt anyway so need to replace it. I personally don't pay attention to any healthy eating rules, if I want something i'll eat it, thankfully I just don't like most of the things that I know aren't great for you like sweets and burgers and chips etc. I think the stress of worring about all these healthy living, 5 a day, low salt, unsaturated fat rubbish is probably more harmful than anything else.

At the end of the day you want to enjoy life, would you rather eat everything you want and die at 60 or live off a diet of beans, lettuce and potatoe juice and potentially die at 60 anyway.

[G]

Apparantly the salt you lose in sweat you lose isn't that signifcant compared to the amount you have taken in.
Despite appearances, I don't tend to get overly worried about such things, but like many other things do like to reasearch what I'm doing.

Having my dad die from a road accident at a relatively young age, I am well aware of 'living for the moment' and do live a lot of my life based on this. However, I'd like to have some insurance against the fact I may fail to kill myself doing something silly, and may end up being properly old at some point. That being the case, I'd prefer to ensure I can enjoy that time too, should I reach it.

I think I shall investigate blood pressure monitors further and get a cheapish one so that I can occasionaly test it while I'm eating lots of salt (obviously if it does show to be overly high, I'll look at doing something about it.)
Might look at some potassium supplements, or just make more of an effort to eat more bananas (I often have one pre-gym anyway.)

[GhostRider]

[s44678]

I think that there is a pretty well documented link between salt (sodium) intake and blood pressure. And as high blood pressure can lead to all sorts of problems. That part is pretty clear cut.

But the exact relationship between the two depends a lot on your age and starting blood pressure as I understand it. So for example: someone at age 50 may reduce their sodium intake by 50% and it might have a 20% reduction in blood pressure. This wont be the same for a 20 year old. They can do the same (reduce sodium by 50%) and only see a 2% drop in blood pressure. These aren't exact figures, but you get what I'm saying. Same principle with starting blood pressure; o someone with high blood pressure starts eating 6g of sodium a day (approx 12g of salt) and their BP will increase by a higher percentage that someone with an average starting BP that does the same thing.

So basically, the older you are and the higher the BP, the greater the effects.

Just get to the docs and have them check your BP (free, no kit required!) and if it turns out to be high, then keep an eye on your salt, possibly consider reducing becuase a small decrease will have a relatively big effect.

If it turns out to be OK or even just a little bit high, then consider whether changing your diet to reduce salt by a large amount is worth it for the small reduction in BP you'll get.


This is just what I remember when I looked at this years ago.

[G]

[s44678]

G, get it checked with the Occupational Health Nurse at work. No need to travel to the doc then. Plus you get a cup of tea (maybe).

[G]

[MarJay]

I think Sarah has a thing for checking blood pressure G. Its not a machine but its an inflatable sleeve and you use a certain type of earpiece to listen to something or other and then you do some complex calculation to work it out.

She knows what she's doing though (Being a student midwife) and I expect she'd take your BP if you asked her nicely.
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[stinkwheel]

[Tonka]

[MarJay]

[s44678]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

I've a feeling that Boots offer a free blood pressure check, it would be worth asking at your local pharmacy too.
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