In our last session, I wrote that doctors recommend a maximum of 2,300 mg of sodium daily for healthy people. Often 1,500 mg. or as low as 1,000 mg is prescribed for people with blood pressure problems. Low salt diets are not associated with a reduction in blood pressure for a vast majority of the population.
In fact, a study in the American Journal of Hypertension states low salt diets may cause increases in total cholesterol. Without salt, insulin levels are elevated, and there is an increased death rate among people with type 1 or 2 diabetes.
Low salt diets produce mineral deficiencies and development of chronic disease. This deficiency can lead to an increase of falls and broken hips. Too little sodium produces hypernatremia, a condition where body fluid levels rise and cells begin to swell. This leads to decreased cognitive abilities among the elderly and can be life threatening, leading to brain swelling and coma. Lesser symptoms as nausea, vomiting, changes in appetite, headache, confusion, loss of energy, fatigue, urinary incontinence, nervousness, muscle weakness, and cramps can also occur.
I want to share a bit about my mother who lived to the age of 94. She was a very unhappy camper with multiple health challenges including macular degeneration and arthritis that left her in a wheelchair. When the doctor took all of her salt away, the only pleasure she had in life, eating, was taken away.
In spite of the fact I was a hospital dietitian and tried every way I could to make her food taste better, she stopped eating and lived on sweets and candy. I wish I knew then what I now know about salt
