What You Always Wanted to Ask About Salt Such as Whether Chloride in Salt Affects Your Blood Pressure and Whether Baking Soda is Helpful in Small Amounts?

March 21-27 is World Salt Awareness Week. In the Sacramento and Davis regional area, back in 2009 a study done by UC Davis researchers and published in the October, 2009 issue of Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, " Dietary Sodium and Cardiovascular Health in Hypertensive Patients, the Case Against Universal Sodium Restriction ," noted that the human brain naturally regulates its own sodium intake for the entire body.

It's a controversial article based on a research study that has prompted nutritionists to ask more questions than the study answers. The 2009 study gave UC Davis researchers the opportunity to challenge FDA guidelines asking consumers to reduce sodium levels when eating, especially when choosing processed or restaurant food.

The UC Davis study published evidence that your body, specifically your brain naturally adjusts the salt levels that you need without you adjusting your salt levels from the outside. Nutritionists want the FDA dietary guidelines to stay as they are. But the study's researchers think the FDA dietary guidelines regarding salt intake is too strict.

The current FDA guidelines recommend no more than 2,300 mg of sodium be eaten each day, which is 14.8 percent lower than the latest research study's lower limit of 2,700 mg of salt daily. For people over age 50, or with hypertension, 1500 mg daily or less of salt may be recommended by some healthcare providers and nutritionists.

When considering the amount of salt the government's FDA recommends as the upper limit, ask yourself whether that is for large males or small women, both, or averaged out? That's one question consumers would like to know. As for the study, even thought he evidence is clear, what should the priorities be for the average consumer--on salt intake or on childhood obesity? That's the big nutrition question almost each year.

According to the study, " Dietary Sodium and Cardiovascular Health in Hypertensive Patients, the Case Against Universal Sodium Restriction ," the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology reports in the newly published abstract of the study that, "Only a single study has been reported in hypertensive patients that links baseline sodium, measured by 24-hour urinary excretion, and subsequent cardiovascular outcomes."

If the Salt Institute has any say with the entire nation's salt industry, perhaps only one study had been performed because grant money for more studies of salt wasn't available during those times. But in the UC Davis 2009 study, controlling for other risk factors, there was a "significant, independent, inverse association of urinary sodium excretion and coronary morbidity and mortality. Indeed, an increase of 66 mmol/24 was associated with a 36% reduction in events." See the article, Dietary sodium and cardiovascular health in hypertensive patients.

The average person may not know what 66 mmol/24 means. That's what you learn in nursing school. So check out the Google book website where you can look at a page of the book on pediatric nursing and see what that measurement looks like on a table. You also might want to explore the articles, "Bicarbonate of Soda Used to Cure Stage Four Prostate Cancer," by Paul Fassa, published on Nov. 13, 2009, and "Baking Soda Prevents Kidney Disease, Renal Failure and Kidney Dialysis."

The study related to kidney disease research indicates that baking soda prevents a worsening of kidney disease and renal failure in patients already with kidney disease. Baking soda has been shown to slow the decline of kidney function in CKD, according to a study published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

In that study, scientists studied 134 patients with advanced CKD and low bicarbonate levels, a condition known as metabolic acidosis. One group of these patients was treated with a small daily dose of sodium bicarbonate in tablet form, in addition to their usual care.

As a result of the small daily baking soda dose, the rate of decline in kidney function was dramatically reduced in these patients. According to the study, "overall, the decline was about two-thirds slower than in patients not given sodium bicarbonate." Interestingly, in patients taking sodium bicarbonate, the rate of decline in kidney function "was similar to the normal age-related decline." Perhaps this study also shows how the human body reacts to the difference between one type of sodium, (sodium bicarbonate also known as baking soda) and sodium chloride found in common table salt.

The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology(JASN) reported that a small daily dose of baking soda could prevent kidney damage and chronic kidney disease. See the abstract of the study, "Bicarbonate Supplementation Slows Progression of CKD and Improves Nutritional Status."

For those without kidney conditions, a small daily dose of baking soda also can come by way of brushing your teeth with it. See: "Baking soda can clean your teeth, clear your complexion and act as a natural antacid." You might wish to check out my other Examiner article, "Who's researching the healing power of baking soda? - Sacramento Nutrition | Examiner.com."

In the study, "Bicarbonate Supplementation Slows Progression of CKD and Improves Nutritional Status," the study's abstract reports, "Taken together, these data provide no support for the notion that either normotensive or hypertensive individuals should routinely decrease (or increase) dietary sodium intake." So what should you do, decrease or increase your salt intake or just follow your doctor's orders without asking?

That's the decision nutritionists are trying to make based on the evidence. And nutritionists also are asking is the plausible evidence valid for people in various health situations? What if your kidneys are not doing well on the salt diet you have? That's a medical question answerable only by your personal physician and medical team.

The study doesn't even mention what happens when restaurants or food packagers process foods not only with a lot of added salt, but also flavor extenders such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) to amplify flavor. When adding salt to food or even MSG and salt, is the motive possibly to get customers addicted to the enhanced taste so they'd buy more of the same food and make more money for the food industry or restaurant?

Are you salt-sensitive?

Did you know that sodium chloride may raise your blood pressure if you're salt-sensitive and also have inherited your family's gene variation for hypertension. But it's the chloride in sodium as well as the chloride in calcium chloride (put into some canned vegetables to preserve color) that significantly raises your blood pressure. Is it chloride in calcium and chloride in sodium rather than sodium by itself that aggravates hypertension?

At the Solay Wellness Inc. site and at Natural News.com, you'll see an article published Dec 14, 2005 titled, "Blaming dietary sodium for high blood pressure is too simplistic; the real problem may be mineral deficiencies." The problem to be solved in some people may be about imbalance in minerals: how too little or too much of magnesium, calcium, and potassium (out of balance) play a role in your hypertension. Can ionic multiple minerals that might be more absorbable actually help if your body isn't absorbing minerals from other sources?

A variation in genes working together may be why some people respond to salt with hypertension and others are salt-resistant. See the book titled, Healing with Vitamins: Straight from Nature, Backed by Science--The Best Nutrients to Slow, Stop, and Reverse Disease (Rodale Health Books) by Editors of Rodale Health Books (Paperback - Mar 17, 2009)

Research on how sodium alone, as in baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) affects hypertension are ongoing. Baking soda contains sodium but not chloride. It's known that calcium chloride put into food cans to preserve color significantly raises the blood pressure in some people that are sensitive to calcium chloride. And sodium chloride also raises the blood pressure of salt-sensitive people.

The best way to handle the issue is to find out which mineral raises your blood pressure. In the meantime, balance is important, the balance of potassium along with magnesium and calcium. On one hand people can't live without salt, but salt is found in many foods such as celery, carrots, and animal protein.

Multiple Minerals in Balance

Scientists are researching how potassium lowers blood pressure by relaxing small vessels and helping to remove excess water and sodium. But too much potassium can kill you.

Magnesium also is very important. Find out whether you're deficient in magnesium. You also need multiple minerals in balance in a form you can absorb such as ionic minerals. Check out the Eidon ionic liquid multiple minerals site.

If the potassium is unbalanced with other minerals it can raise blood pressure. A number of studies have found that limiting sodium alone doesn't lower blood pressure in many people unless potassium intake is upped simultaneously. But some people using the potassium chloride in salt substitute find their blood pressure rising after they stopped eating salted foods. What's happening?

There are a lot of issues involved. For example, your individual blood pressure problem could be associated with a high level of rennin.

It's an enzyme released by the kidneys that eventually leads to the formation of angiotensin and the release of aldosterone. These compounds cause the blood vessels to constrict and the blood pressure to increase. If you cut out salt completely, your blood pressure could rise significantly from the imbalance of too much potassium.

Check out the Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements

See The Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements. It lists foods by their sodium: potassium ratio. Also see Debra's Natural Gourmet site. Be careful if you're sensitive to the potassium chloride in salt substitutes. Don't take any supplements without first talking to your health care professionals to see whether you have a condition that makes taking any specific supplement dangerous or eating any particular food or seasoning is safe for you considering your condition or whether you take any medications.

A teaspoon generally provides 1200-1300 mg, potassium. If your kidneys or heart can't handle that much potassium chloride, your blood pressure could skyrocket, especially if you're not eating salt and other minerals in a balanced state.

That's why it's important to be tested anytime you are taking something like potassium, magnesium, sodium or any supplements. You need tests of what minerals actually are being absorbed in your cells.

What's happening inside your body? In which minerals are you deficient? What are your cells actually absorbing? Is your doctor ordering the correct test of what minerals are being absorbed by your cells and not just what's in your blood serum?

Or if you have "elevated intracellular sodium or decreased intracellular potassium levels," maybe you'd respond better to magnesium supplementation.

Only you and your doctor can find out by testing or giving you a four-week trial of a mineral such as magnesium to see how your body is reacting to that basic mineral. The goal is to see what could be out of balance or deficient in some areas.

Your doctor may want to put you on a month-long trial of taking magnesium. No one wants to be low on magnesium if and when that person ends up in the emergency room.

If you don't like the way conventional medicine is handling your nutrition questions, talk to a reputable medical doctor who also has training in naturopathy, complementary medicine, preventive medicine, integrative medicine, or alternative medicine and nutrition...and who knows what tests to give.

Does a little baking soda in your food affect your body differently than a little sea salt?

Read the label printed on a container of a particular antioxidant supplement that has a little baking soda added to its capsules. Some people may see the following statement: "Research suggests that sodium may impact blood pressure in some individuals only when it is consumed as sodium chloride (NaCl) table salt and not in other forms."

This means maybe your next topic to research is whether sodium alone, such as found in baking soda has a different effect on your hypertension than table salt, including sea salt and mineral salt, which is sodium chloride. Could that be why magnesium is added to restaurant salt shakers in parts of Finland?

Magnesium Powder

You need minerals. But which minerals? And how many in what quantities? Find out from your health care professionals that actually know about measuring your minerals. Ask whether your body type needs more magnesium than calcium and why. One book recently published is called The Calcium Lie by Robert Thompson, M.D. and Kathleen Barnes. View The Calcium Lie uTube video on this link . Another recently published book is Dr. Carolyn Dean, M.D. N.D's The Magnesium Miracle . And don't forget the section on the health benefits of magnesium (in the proper amount) stated in Dr. Sherry A. Rogers, M.D. book titled, Is Your Cardiologist Killing You? View two of Dr. Roger's videos on uTube on the effects of air pollution on your body and other health and nutrition topics. Most doctors have not considered that mineral cofactors are involved in our biochemical reactions. This means in plain language that we all need a mineral balance. Are you taking a small amount of multiple minerals and silica to balance your minerals? Your first step is to investigate what multiple minerals in ionic form you do need.

Each person's body is different and requires a different amount that works best for the individual. Find out what works right for you. It has been said in various books on nutrition that women need about 420 mg of magnesium and men need a bit less, about 320 mg of magnesium daily. You need to balance all your minerals, including your calcium and magnesium ratios. Find out what your body needs. See The Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements. It lists foods by their sodium:potassium ratio. Also see Debra's Natural Gourmet site. Be careful if you're sensitive to the potassium chloride in salt substitutes. In some Sacramento food markets, when you reach for a package of prepared take-out salad, on the ingredients label sometimes you'll see one ingredient that you'd normally not be aware of on freshly cut vegetables. That's calcium chloride. See the article, Hypertension, High Blood Pressure Control, Heart Palpitations. According to the article, "Calcium chloride can raise the systolic blood pressure by 20mm and the diastolic blood pressure by 15mm within a hour or two.

How does calcium chloride added to foods affect your body's response to that mineral?

Is it the chloride some people are sensitive to, or is it the combination? After all, calcium or magnesium citrate won't have that effect. See the article, The Calcium Cholesterol Connection - Lower Your Cholesterol. But be careful, studies have come out saying calcium alone increases the risk of heart attack. Your body needs a balance of multiple minerals.

Sodium chloride may raise your blood pressure if you're salt-sensitive and also have inherited your family's gene variation for hypertension. But is it the chloride in sodium as well as the chloride in calcium chloride (put into some canned vegetables to preserve color) that significantly raises your blood pressure?

Is it chloride in calcium and chloride in sodium rather than sodium by itself that aggravates hypertension? Does a small amount of baking soda affect your blood pressure? Why is a small amount baking soda sometimes given to some types of kidney patients to help them? These are all topics to research.

Some people sensitive to calcium chloride put in packaged salads to preserve color may also find the calcium chloride will raise their blood pressure as will potassium chloride, but not potassium citrate or calcium citrate. Then again, magnesium chloride is used by prescription to lower blood pressure. But some people may take magnesium citrate supplements to prevent blood pressure from rising. It's complicated.

At the Solay Wellness Inc. site and at Natural News.com, you'll see an article published Dec 14, 2005 titled, "Blaming dietary sodium for high blood pressure is too simplistic; the real problem may be mineral deficiencies." The problem to be solved may be about imbalance in minerals: how too little or too much of magnesium, calcium, and potassium (out of balance) play a role in your hypertension. Can ionic multiple minerals that might be more absorbable actually help if your body isn't absorbing minerals from other sources?

A variation in genes working together may be why some people respond to salt with hypertension and others are salt-resistant. See the book titled, Healing with Vitamins: Straight from Nature, Backed by Science--The Best Nutrients to Slow, Stop, and Reverse Disease (Rodale Health Books) by Editors of Rodale Health Books (Paperback - Mar 17, 2009)

Research on how sodium alone, as in baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) affects hypertension are ongoing. Baking soda contains sodium but not chloride. It's known that calcium chloride put into food cans to preserve color significantly raises the blood pressure in some people that are sensitive to calcium chloride. And sodium chloride also raises the blood pressure of salt-sensitive people.

The best way to handle the issue is to find out which mineral raises your blood pressure. In the meantime, balance is important, the balance of potassium along with magnesium and calcium. On one hand people can't live without salt, but salt is found in many foods such as celery, carrots, and animal protein.

Scientists are researching how potassium lowers blood pressure by relaxing small vessels and helping to remove excess water and sodium. But too much potassium can kill you. And potassium citrate may not raise your blood pressure, but potassium chloride may raise your blood pressure.

It's about how your body responds to the ingredient. Check the label on vegetable juices, such as tomato juice. Did the company add potassium chloride instead of not adding anything other than vegetable juices and herbs or spices?

Are you taking a small amount of multiple minerals and silica to balance your minerals? Your first step is to investigate what multiple minerals in ionic form you do need. What works best for you?

Or is the real reason for adding so much salt or other types of sodium or even calcium chloride, known to raise blood pressure in some people who are sensitive to it, to processed food simply to preserve the food or its color? What the study actually was focusing on is whether the body adjusts to sodium levels naturally, regardless of what you put in your body. And the brain is what does the adjusting.

Just as government intervention had proposed an ideal level of salt intake for restaurants and food processing companies to think about and voluntary reduce salt in their products, this new study comes out in the face of nutrition policy advocates that want to inform people to reduce sodium intake because excess sodium, most nutritionists say, is not healthy.

Physicians know there are salt sensitive people as well as salt resistant people. It's genetic. Either you have a common gene variant that controls how your kidneys process and eliminate excess salt in a certain way, or you have a salt resistant gene that lets your kidneys process and get rid of salt in another way.

Scientists know that around 60 percent of hypertensive people where the cause usually is said to be unknown may be sensitive to salt and react to excess salt by releasing renin and a form of angiotensin, whereby the blood pressure could be raised too high.

It's supposed to be genetic the way you handle salt. But the new study now is controversial because it is saying sodium (salt) intake is regulated by the brain. Now you have to separate the human reaction to salt (sodium) as in bicarbonate of soda from sodium chloride (table salt).

You have to ask whether it's the chloride raising the blood pressure in salt-sensitive people rather than the sodium. In some cases, a small amount of sodium from baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) doesn't raise the blood pressure. So is it the chloride in sodium, just as calcium chloride raises blood pressure when it's put in some canned vegetables to preserve color? These are some questions nutritionists are asking.

What annoys nutritionists is that for years emphasis has been put on restaurants and food packagers and processors to lower the salt they put in food such as bread, frozen meals, canned soups, cheese, and other processed food items including restaurant food. The new study is saying that because sodium intake is regulated by your brain, your own body won't let you eat outside of that boundary. Your brain controls how much salt your body needs.

Nutritionists disagree and argue that if you put food in front of a person, the individual won't be able to tell how much salt his or her brain is going to limit the person from eating at that meal or during the day. Researchers also say that although the food supply contains too much salt, that doesn't necessarily mean that people are eating that much salt. On the other hand, the UC Davis researchers explain that your brain won't let you go very far outside the boundary of how much salt your brain tells your body that you really need.

The argument nutritionists have against the new evidence is that they might doubt your body actually would gravitate toward low sodium foods once you had enough salt? What do you think? In the study, researchers collected data from 20,000 adults in 32 countries.

What researchers looked at was the evidence that the adult range of sodium intake was a narrow 2,700 to 4,900 mg of sodium (table salt or sea salt) each day. The cultures varied widely. This amount of sodium is far beyond what doctors, nutritionists, and HMOs hand out to patients to keep their salt levels below 1,500 mg a day if they have essential high blood pressure, and around 2,000 mg a day if they are not salt sensitive and don't have high blood pressure.

What the new research concludes is that people all over the world keep a normal range of salt intake for their own body, a pretty strict lower and upper limit on salt intake as determined by the human brain controlling what the rest of the body will eat.The studies are scientifically plausible. But as a consumer, who are you going to follow, your doctor that tells you to eat less salt to avoid the risk of heart disease and strokes or because your blood pressure is too high? Or the plausible evidence of the study?

Where you could turn to in order to read information on the topic is the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, DC nutritional advocacy group. Should you lower your salt intake or not? You'll find information online telling you to do one or the other. High salt intake mostly comes from processed foods. In prehistoric times, humans didn't use salt at all. They received salt from eating foods that already contain salt such as various animal proteins and plants. In modern times, you can taste the salt in such vegetables as celery, carrots, and parsley. If you cook a vegetable broth of onions, celery, and carrots, often you'll be able to taste the 'salt' in the 'soup.'

Australian aborigines traditionally didn't add salt to their natural foods and lived on less than 1,000 mg of sodium daily. At the other part of the globe, Finland sometimes has mixed magnesium with salt in salt shakers on some restaurant tables in the past to get people to balance their sodium intake with magnesium and other multiple minerals in small amounts.

The decision you'll have to make as a consumer is whether the amount of salt you eat is posing a risk of heart disease, heart attack, or stroke or not, or whether your multiple minerals are balanced and in small enough amounts not to do any harm. So the ball is back in the nutritionist's court for now, but of course, the studies do go on, and the research, remember, is plausible. For further information, see the Sacramento Bee article, October 17, 2009, " Don't sweat your salt intake, UC Davis study says ," by Anna Tong.

So whose side are you going to take-- the UC Davis researchers, Center for Science in the Public Interest, or the UC Davis nutritionists? How much salt do you eat daily? And is your health fine or challenged based on your sodium intake?

Resources

Michael H. Alderman, Dietary Sodium and Cardiovascular Health in Hypertensive Patients: The Case against Universal Sodium Restriction
Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, Jan 2004; 15: S47 - S50. Published: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009.

Eric N. Taylor, Teresa T. Fung, and Gary C. Cu DASH-Style Diet Associates with Reduced Risk for Kidney Stones August 13, 2009. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

For more info: browse my books, How Nutrigenomics Fights Childhood Type 2 Diabetes & Weight Issues (2009) or Predictive Medicine for Rookies (2005). Or see my books, How to Safely Tailor Your Foods, Medicines, & Cosmetics to Your Genes (2003) or How to Interpret Family History & Ancestry DNA Test Results for Beginners (2004) or How to Open DNA-driven Genealogy Reporting & Interpreting Businesses. (2007). Check out my free audio lecture on Internet Archive, How nutrigenomics fights childhood type 2 diabetes.