What your doctor told you about salt is probably wrong
It is conventional wisdom in allopathic medicine that reducing salt intake is essential for heart health. The doctor crowd, especially heart doctors, have literally scared the American people away from salt.
But studies are increasingly showing that low-salt diets are not only ineffective in affecting heart health, but are actually hazardous to our overall health.
A 2014 Cochrane study showed that “there is insufficient power to confirm clinically important effects of dietary advice and salt substitution on cardiovascular mortality in normotensive or hypertensive populations.”
In 2011, a health study reported in Journal of American Medical Association found that those who ate less salt were the most likely to die from heart disease — five times more likely, in fact, than those with the highest salt intake.
A study published in the journal AMJ Hypertens found that “[r]estricting sodium (salt) intake causes insulin resistance (which leads to diabetes and heart disease). Restricting salt can promote diabetes and heart disease.
“In fact, research studies have routinely found that sodium significantly improves insulin function. According to one study, ‘an abundant sodium intake may improve glucose tolerance and insulin resistance, especially in diabetic salt-sensitive, and/or medicated essential hypertensive subjects.’”
According to Dr. W.C. Douglas, a low-salt diet is deadly. He reported in his May 27, 2011 newsletter “Daily Dose” that “one study found that seniors with the lowest salt consumption had the highest risk of bone breaks and early death.”
In the book “Salt Your Way to Health,” David Brownstein, M.D., states: “Researchers studied the relationship between a low sodium diet and cardiovascular mortality. Nearly 3,000 hypertensive subjects were studied. The result of this study was that there was a 430% increase in myocardial infarction (heart attack) in the group with the lowest salt intake versus the group with the highest intake.”
Why? He says that low-sodium diets predispose one to having a heart attack because of multiple nutrient deficiencies of minerals, potassium and B vitamins.
We now have some more data on salt’s actual benefits. A study in the March 3 issue of Cell Metabolism shows that dietary salt helps the body defend against microbes. In other words, it helps with immunity.
The study showed that “[a] high-salt diet increased sodium accumulation in the skin of mice, thereby boosting their immune response to a skin-infecting parasite. The findings suggest that dietary salt could have therapeutic potential to promote host defense against microbial infections.”
The study came about after researchers found that patients with bacterial skin infections showed a high accumulation of salt in the infected areas. In their subsequent experiments, researchers found that mice fed a high-salt diet showed an increase in the activity of their immune cells called macrophages. This increase promoted healing in the mice that had had their feet infected with a protozoan parasite called Leishmania major.
The researchers concluded: “We also think that local application of high-salt-containing wound dressings and the development of other salt-boosting antimicrobial therapies might bear therapeutic potential.”
We do not use or recommend refined salt from the grocery store. We use sea salt, which contains 17 minerals.
Unrefined natural sea salt is different from common table salt, which is chemically treated and stripped of minerals such as calcium, magnesium and potassium.
Not only does natural sea salt add flavor to your favorite foods, but it can also help with many different health conditions. According to the book “Water & Salt, The Essence of Life” by Barbara Hendel, sea salt has been shown to:
- Help reduce the acidity of your tissues.
- Help stabilize irregular heartbeats.
- Balance blood sugar levels.
- Revitalize nerve cell communication with your brain.
- Help with the absorption process in your intestinal tract.
- Prevent muscle cramps.
When shopping for sea salt, be sure that it has not been refined or boiled to produce the crystals. The sea salt should be harvested and allowed to dry by evaporation in order to be labeled “natural.”
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