Salt

[CherryAA]

HAve been reading The Salt Fix. Many of the comments in there applied to me. I've got so used to " restricting" salt, I don't even notice it is not in my diet.

Sooo this week I decided I would ADD specifically a dose of salt, by deliberately taking hlaf a teaspoon dry each morning then washing down with a glass of water.

Somewhat to my astonishment, I have found that my morning dawn phenomena has gone down dramatically this week. I often hit a high with an 8 or even an 9 briefly. This morning my dp high was only 5.9 . The result of all this is that my daily average glucose was only 4.9. 5.1 and 5.2 - all numbers that are unprecedented for me.
I'm eating a standard LCHF diet, two meals per day.
I have no clue if the salt is connected , but I thought I would mention it in case it might have a similar effect for others.

 

[JohnEGreen]

VLC can cause salt deficiency if in ketosis it may be best to supplement..

 

[carol43]

I think I posted about the salt problem before but I'll so it again.
I was chatting to a mother at my grandsons playgroup and she said that she had really sky high blood pressure since her son was born nearly three years ago and nothing the GP gave her would bring it down and the next step was putting her on blood thinners to see if that would help. She told me that she had cut all salt out of her diet as she was told this would help. I asked her to try for just a week to see if introducing salt back into her diet would help. The next week when I walked in the door she grabbed me and gave me a big hug and said that I had saved her life.. Said told me that her blood pressure was back to normal and the GP can't understand. She has been left with a bit of AF but is hoping that t will improve.

 

[kitedoc]

Hi @CherryAA Perhaps you need to check BSLS for 2 weeks or so to see if the effect is consistent.
Also are you on any other medication which might somehow be involved?
I do not have any explanation for the your BSL results so far.
My concern with low salt diets is that salt in most countries is iodised (Oz, universally yes, I think, not sure about UK) and so
low salt diet could led to iodine deficiency. I view a site called Salt Matters which talks about low salt diet for treating high Blood pressure and recommends ways to ensure iodine intake is sufficient on such diets.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Interesting.

I am and always have been a big salt eater. I add it to food, and I eat salty food.

My blood pressure has never been high. Totally normal in fact.

My dawn phenomenon has always been fairly insignificant - my FBG has always been low to mid 5s from shortly after diagnosis, and any rise after that during the morning has been no more than half a mmol/l unless I exercise in some way.

 

[NicoleC1971]

The general advice for salt might be applicable to those in whom eating over 2.7g a day causes high blood pressure but not all of us are 'salt sensitive' and some of us eating low carb or ketogenically may need closer to double that to offset the fluid loss and balance our electrolytes. For this reason I've never stinted on salt nor had high blood pressure (other than during 1st pregnancy).
As with all things diet it is hard to seperte out the efect of eating salty and often highly processed foods with having s aprinkle of sodium chloride with your butter on your grass fed steak plus green veggies.
Fyi Gary Taubes wrote his first nutritional myth debunking piece on the idea that salt causes high blood pressure. Am off to search for that now!

 

[lindisfel]

Obviously if one cannot get rid of sodium and their body is retaining fluid it would be silly to increase sodium intake because I can assure you that sodium does put blood pressure up for some.

If early man had a low carb diet I doubt he mixed up his bouilion each morning.
The body, in time, if is working properly, maintains stasis via various hormone systems.

It is a negative for the keto diet if we have to constantly tinker with our electrolytes because of the diet!
How can it be a normal diet?

Some people are very fortunate who don't have htn and can drink brine without their blood pressure going up.

Even seabirds (albatrosses and petrels) have a special gland that causes them to excrete excessive sodium from their salty diets to keep their electrolytes in balance.

There appears to be some confusion between the recommendations for salt and sodium.
NB one gram of salt is c.0.4 gram of sodium.

 

[zand]

I think I posted about the salt problem before but I'll so it again.
I was chatting to a mother at my grandsons playgroup and she said that she had really sky high blood pressure since her son was born nearly three years ago and nothing the GP gave her would bring it down and the next step was putting her on blood thinners to see if that would help. She told me that she had cut all salt out of her diet as she was told this would help. I asked her to try for just a week to see if introducing salt back into her diet would help. The next week when I walked in the door she grabbed me and gave me a big hug and said that I had saved her life.. Said told me that her blood pressure was back to normal and the GP can't understand. She has been left with a bit of AF but is hoping that t will improve.

re the AF. Magnesium may help. It usually puts my heart back into sinus rhythm after 1 or 2 doses.

 

[carol43]

@zand Thanks, I'll suggest that to her.

 

[Bluetit1802]

re the AF. Magnesium may help. It usually puts my heart back into sinus rhythm after 1 or 2 doses.

Which sort do tdo you take? I have been using a magnesium oil spray, but have seen no effect and it has irritated my skin.

 

[zand]

Which sort do tdo you take? I have been using a magnesium oil spray, but have seen no effect and it has irritated my skin.

I used to use Ultra Muscleze (now renamed Megamag Muscleze) but changed to MegaMag Fem Balance as my naturopath tested them both on me (using some wacky method lol) and said the latter was better. They are both expensive (around £25 a tub), made by Nutri Advanced and both were recommended to me by naturopaths. When I was in Poland 3 years ago I had AF and had forgotten to take my Ultra Muscleze with me, I bought just a standard Magnesium tablet with vitB6 and it did the trick.

 

[CherryAA]

VLC can cause salt deficiency if in ketosis it may be best to supplement..

I never ate much salt before ( high blood pressur advice - of course) and I didn't eat junk foods before - so I doubt my salt content changed much pre and post keto. I've probably been salt deficient for years!

 

[CherryAA]

Hi @CherryAA Perhaps you need to check BSLS for 2 weeks or so to see if the effect is consistent.
Also are you on any other medication which might somehow be involved?
I do not have any explanation for the your BSL results so far.
My concern with low salt diets is that salt in most countries is iodised (Oz, universally yes, I think, not sure about UK) and so
low salt diet could led to iodine deficiency. I view a site called Salt Matters which talks about low salt diet for treating high Blood pressure and recommends ways to ensure iodine intake is sufficient on such diets.

No other medication changes, I am also taking a daily dose of magnesium & potassium,but I've been doing that for a while- only the salt is new.

I will certainly be keeping an eye on it, if http://thesaltfix.com/ is right, then generally speaking if you do eat too much your body should get rid of it, In any event it takes a few days to " replenish" to optimal - so I will just carry on for a bit, then test both blood pressure and sugar levels - I doubt I'm going to do myself much damage with a few half teaspoons of salt. Interestin to see.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I used to use Ultra Muscleze (now renamed Megamag Muscleze) but changed to MegaMag Fem Balance as my naturopath tested them both on me (using some wacky method lol) and said the latter was better. They are both expensive (around £25 a tub), made by Nutri Advanced and both were recommended to me by naturopaths. When I was in Poland 3 years ago I had AF and had forgotten to take my Ultra Muscleze with me, I bought just a standard Magnesium tablet with vitB6 and it did the trick.

Thank you. I don't have A-Fib but do have ventricular ectopics. I am going to have to stop the spray, so I'll see what I can do.

 

[Safi]

If early man had a low carb diet I doubt he mixed up his bouilion each morning.
The body, in time, if is working properly, maintains stasis via various hormone systems.

It is a negative for the keto diet if we have to constantly tinker with our electrolytes because of the diet!
How can it be a normal diet?

It's said that because early man didn't limit himself to muscle meat he got all his electrolytes from organs, blood etc....

 

[lindisfel]

Which sort do tdo you take? I have been using a magnesium oil spray, but have seen no effect and it has irritated my skin.

Potassium is often a problem with heart irregularities, it hard to get 4.7grams a day as recommended.
D.

 

[dunelm]

I eat loads of salt, it helps with cramp and with maintaining osmolality.
Cutting out salt, I think, is just as nuts as not eating butter or drinking blue milk and fat free yoghurt.
However, you must make your own choices when it comes to what you put in your mouth.

 

[lindisfel]

It's said that because early man didn't limit himself to muscle meat he got all his electrolytes from organs, blood etc....

Some early societies eg. Semetic tribes had prohibitions on such foods.
They did not seem to have problems in that regard. The Jewish race were extremely healthy ancestrally.
D.

 

[Safi]

Some early societies eg. Semetic tribes had prohibitions on such foods.
They did not seem to have problems in that regard. The Jewish race were extremely healthy ancestrally.
D.

Are all organ meats prohibited? I thought those from some animals were OK.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Potassium is often a problem with heart irregularities, it hard to get 4.7grams a day as recommended.
D.

Thanks for the info. However, my serum potassium levels are in the top half of the normal range. I do eat a lot of tinned salmon and tomatoes, plus a few spuds, so I guess I do OK. I know there has to be a balance between potassium and sodium for things to work properly, but I'm not entirely sure what that balance is.