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Balancing act
When an integrative physician that I respect recently told my daughter to supplement with a teaspoon of salt per day, I was reminded that I had meant to go back after my newsletter series on salt and tell the “rest of the story” (as broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say).

Early this year the US government announced new guidelines for salt intake: No more than 2,300 mg/day for most people and a maximum of 1,500 mg/day for some groups (those over age 51 or who suffer from heart or kidney disease or diabetes or who are of African American decent). The federal pressure on food companies to reduce salt is working. Many companies including Wal-Mart are leading the way. From all this it would be easy to get the idea that salt is just plain BAD. But is it? Like Mark Twain said: “All generalizations are false, including this one.”

In the first of my newsletter series on salt I listed a few health benefits of sodium. If there were not benefits, why would animals instinctively gravitate to “salt licks?” But, the assumed downside of salt has become medical gospel-doesn’t it raise blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular and kidney disease?

Surprise, surprise . A large study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association this month seemed to cast doubt on the dogma that sodium increases high blood pressure. In fact, the data seemed to indicate that salt restriction might even put some people more at risk for a fatal heart attack.¹ As pointed out in a CNN article on the study, they had started with healthy people, not those with high blood pressure who might react differently. The ultimate conclusion may be that some people are salt-sensitive but that most are not. If you have kidney disease or heart failure be safe and do whatever the doc says. Otherwise, cut salt and see if your blood pressure goes down.

Minerals and stroke: In a recent study 34,670 women 49-83 years of age were followed for 10.4 years. Those who consumed the most magnesium and potassium were significantly less likely to suffer a stroke. Those with the highest calcium intake were more likely to have one.²

Electrolytes : Electrolytes are minerals (like sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium) that, in the simplest terms, work to direct electrical energy around the body where it is needed. Athletes drink Gatorade Ò because the electrolytes control heart function, nerve impulse transmission and contraction of muscles. Drinking plain water might dilute or flush out the athlete’s own electrolyte minerals. The relationship between these minerals is like a tug of war. Sodium (e.g. from salt) remains largely outside the cells and is kept there by potassium which is largely inside cells. Likewise, calcium is mainly outside cells and magnesium inside. Given that calcium is stimulating to cells and magnesium is calming, you can appreciate the need for balance. For example, if you are low in magnesium at a time when you are under physical or mental stress, calcium can go into cells and remain there agitating because it doesn’t have the magnesium to tell it to get out and chill. One reason I like Celtic Salt is that it contains a lot more minerals than standard sea salt and helps keep that balance.

My 2 Cents : Neither of the above studies paints a complete picture because life and physiology complicated and studies can’t track all variables. In the first study, I have to wonder if the folks who didn’t develop high blood pressure had been protected by eating sufficient potassium. As crucial as magnesium and potassium are, the stroke protective benefit in the second study might have been in part because people would have gotten those minerals mainly from fruits and vegetables. Those plant foods also contain protective antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients.

Now what? Often the health benefit of some type of diet isn’t so much about what has been taken out (like the much maligned fat, meat and salt), but more a matter of what balancing nutrients have been put in.* That is to say, there are two ways to achieve balance-reduce one thing or increase its counterpart. Of course, you can overdo anything and people who eat a lot of processed foods do get a ton of salt. In that case it might be better to do both-reduce salt and eat more foods like fruits and vegetables to get added potassium. Salt substitutes are an option because they use potassium instead of sodium. Simplicity!-there is just less to keep track of if you simply eat a variety of whole natural foods including plenty of vegetables. Beyond that, because stress raises our requirement for magnesium and our foods are now depleted in it, most people would benefit from a supplement.

Bottom line : It would seem that the U.S. government’s effort to dramatically reduce salt intake for the population as a whole may be misguided. Because the “diet dictocrats” so often jump on a medical consensus that has not been fully proven or even given a common sense test, i t seems the greatest health risk is in taking nutrition advice from the government.

*(Refined sugar and chemicals don’t follow that rule because there is no nutritional need for them.)

My first book : Natural Alternatives to Nexium, Maalox, Tagamet, Prilosec & Other Acid Blockers. Subtitle: What to Use to Relieve Acid Reflux, Heartburn, and Gastric Ailments.

My latest book : Aloe Vera-Modern Science Sheds Light on an Ancient Herbal Remedy

Copyright 2011 Martie Whittekin, CCN

¹ Stolarz-Skrzypek, K. Fatal and nonfatal outcomes, incidence of hypertension, and blood pressure changes in relation to urinary sodium excretion. JAMA. 2011 May 4;305(17):1777-85.

² Larsson, SC. Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium Intakes and Risk of Stroke in Women. Am J Epidemiol. 2011 May 3. [Epub ahead of print]