Bruce, what is the relationship between salt intake and sweating?

I like my salt, but I also lose a lot of salt just about every day, from extensive sweating due to a good hard hike or run most days and bushwalking most weekends. My blood pressure is excellent and always has been.

Can salt have negative effects such as contributing to the hardening of your arteries and hence to an increased likelihood of heart attack or stroke, while outwardly appearing to present no problem if your blood pressure remains good?

If you sweat a lot, how do you know how much salt is too much?

Reducing salt consumption is an important factor in reducing blood pressure. Perhaps even more important is switching the salt you do use from the highly refined table salt to naturally harvested salts full of beneficial minerals.

Mind you, the cause of 90% of high blood pressure is 'unknown'. But there is still lot you can do to reduce it - like eating dark chocolate and drinking a glass of red wine everyday, after your 30 minute walk outside.

Best regards,
Simon Foster
http://highbloodpressurebegone.com

Bruce, I just saw you on Food Investigators on SBS, talking about salt. Good program.

http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/foodinvestigators/episodes/detail/episode/66

However, I still have no idea as to what difference a good regular sweat might have on one’s salt intake or the negative effects thereof.

Perhaps you could advise me Simon Foster (please see my post above for further info).

I don’t get it. The author is either not monitoring his thread or not interested in answering my questions, or unable to answer them!

Simon Foster has transferred my post to the ‘High blood pressure be gone’ blog and responded to it directly….but then amazingly completely failed to address the questions! (same response there as posted on OLO)

Hi, to answer the questions that I think were directed to me ...

I was diagnosed with extreme hypertension with no apparent cause (195 / 122).

No one has to take prescription medication. It's always a choice. (At least it is in this country - Wales).

I have lowered my blood pressure using alternative and natural methods. But the journey is not over and my levels are still dropping (between 125 - 145 at present).

I intend posting information on good eating for hypertension when I get the time (probably starting next week).

Too much salt is not good. Common table salt is not good. The right amount of good salt is good.

Regards,
Simon Foster
http://highbloodpressurebegone.com

Hi All

Apologies for not responding to your comments earlier:

1. Sweating - if you sweat a lot your body pretty soon reduces the amount of salt in your sweat (so you probably don't lose a lot of salt that way). Unless you are an extreme athlete it is very unlikely that you need to take extra salt to control for salt losses. The physical activity you do working up the sweat will be the main reason why you will get health benefits. Not the salt loss.

2. How does salt cause harm - the main reason why salt causes adverse effects appear to be through the impact it has on your blood pressure. Whether there are effects independent of the blood pressure rise is not entirely clear although there is a strong link between excess salt consumption and stomach cancer.

3. Sea salt - I am afraid to say that sea salt is almost entirely sodiuum chloride and just as bad for you as other types of salt. If you must eat salt then use a high potassium, low sodium salt substitute. The potassium in iot will actually help lower your blood pressure. And teh reduced sodium content will stop it pushing your blood pressure up as much as it otherwise would.

4. The causes of high blood pressure - it is a fallacy that the cause of 90% of high blood pressure is unknown. This comes from the old medical way of thinking of things where lifestyle exposures such as salt, overweight and physical inactivity were not considered as causes. High blood pressure can be explained by lifestyle factors for almost everyone that suffers from it. The other 10% will have some unusual medical cause most often associated with some aspect of kidney function.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Bruce