Most physiological and biological processes function properly only when sufficient amounts of sodium and chloride, contained in salt, are present in the body's cells, respecting the sodium-potassium balance. Hydrochloric acid (HCl), present in the stomach, is one of the essential fluids for digestion. What is perhaps less known is that the body produces this acid from salt.
Low-salt diets contribute to an increase in hormones and blood lipids, with higher plasma levels of renin, cholesterol, and triglycerides. Low sodium intake is associated with poor outcomes in type 2 diabetes, and those on a low-salt diet are more likely to die prematurely due to higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Recent studies have shown that endurance athletes frequently develop low blood sodium, or hyponatremia, even in the absence of cognitive symptoms. Salt restriction can be especially dangerous for the elderly. Older adults with hyponatremia experience more falls and broken hips, and decline in cognitive abilities.
Potassium is an electrolyte that has a significant effect on muscle contraction and arterial wall relaxation, yet most people barely manage to consume half of the recommended daily amount. The effect of potassium is greater in people with higher blood pressure, as well as in older people, people who eat a lot of salt, and people with dark skin. The research found that women without hypertension who consumed more potassium (almost 3,200 mg/day) had a 21% lower risk of stroke, and those with higher potassium intake were 12% less likely to die during the study period than those with lower intakes.
Low potassium levels have been linked to high insulin and glucose levels, which in turn are linked to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.
A 2018 systematic review of several clinical trials examined the efficacy of lower sodium intake among people with prevalent heart failure and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support salt reduction as a strategy to reduce incident cardiovascular events or mortality in that population.
This research reported on the dose-response relationships of sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium with disease risk. Cardiovascular (CVD) risk in the Framingham Offspring Study, as well as the combined effects of these minerals. Analyses included 2,362 men and women aged 30–64 years without CVD at baseline. Restricted cubic spline curves showed inverse dose-response relationships of potassium and magnesium with CVD risk but not with low sodium intake.
Salt chloride is required for the endogenous production of hydrochloric acid. With age, hydrochloric acid secretion decreases, causing poor digestion of meats and protein foods in general, minerals, and vitamins.
Hypochlorhydria can result in a deficiency of a protein called "intrinsic gastric mucosal factor." This component is essential for the absorption of vitamin B12, which is involved in the formation of Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause Alzheimer's, dementia, cognitive impairment and memory loss, multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders, mental illness, cardiovascular disease, learning or developmental disorders in children, autism spectrum disorder, autoimmune disease and immune dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and cancer.
Great research. The chloride in salt is necessary for the endogenous production of hydrochloric acid. With age, hydrochloric acid secretion decreases, causing poor digestion of meats and protein foods in general, non-heme iron, and other minerals that depend on hydrochloric acid, primarily magnesium, chromium, copper, manganese, magnesium, molybdenum, calcium, selenium, and zinc, as well as vitamin B12. Of these minerals, zinc and sodium are both responsible for the production of HCl. Betaine hydrochloride may also be recommended.
Hypochlorhydria can lead to a deficiency of a protein called gastric mucosal intrinsic factor. This component is essential for the absorption of vitamin B12, which is involved in the formation of red blood cells, so its deficiency can lead to pernicious anemia.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause: Alzheimer's, dementia, cognitive impairment and memory loss, multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders, mental illness, cardiovascular disease, learning or developmental disorders in children, autism spectrum disorder, autoimmune disease and immune dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and cancer. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257642/ (2010).---
The hypertension epidemic is multifactorial (holistic), each factor plays a small role, and is due to:
- Higher blood sugar levels (blood sugar impairs the parasympathetic nervous system more than the sympathetic nervous system, and this imbalance results in higher blood pressure; this is why diabetics almost always have high blood pressure).
- Sodium-potassium imbalance.
- Excess weight (blood pressure needs to be higher to reach all parts of a larger body).
- Lack of sleep contributes to stress (stress raises blood pressure by activating the sympathetic nervous system).
- Too little exercise (exercise reduces stress, keeping arteries healthy).
Few things sum up the absurdity of Evidence-Based Medicine™ more than the restriction of salt for high blood pressure. This is a classic example of introducing a second problem with the hope that this will counter the first problem, without considering a) if there is even any benefit in doing so and b) what the consequences might be.
To this end, the evidence is very clear that restricting sodium will see a drop in blood pressure in about one in five people but that there is zero benefit in cardiovascular events or total mortality. Which would make it pointless, but its worse than that. Sodium restriction causes
Any doctor that robotically passes on these committee-driven guidelines is demonstrating that they have no interest in actually assessing the literature and no curiosity in how the human body works. The literature is clear that this strategy was entirely flawed from the start, based on some farcical research from Lewis Dahl (who had to breed salt-sensitive rats and then feed them 8x the usual salt intake in order to get the results he wanted, and then declare that salt “unequivocally causes hypertension”).
What they should be asking is WHY the body induces high blood pressure… if they did, they would see that this is a clever and elegant adaptation to reduced oxygen availability at cellular level. Starving the body of the sodium it needs to adapt to these challenges is a recipe for major complications. All the issues we see in those consuming a low sodium diet are not only inevitable, but entirely predictable.
Of course hypertension calls for our attention. It demonstrates that something is wrong. But adding a second insult to the system and calling is ‘treatment’ defies both logic and the evidence.
(Article on how these recommendations came into force, the evidence on salt restriction and how to determine the cause of low oxygen availability (the underlying cause of low blood pressure), see here: https://marekdoyle.substack.com/p/salt-recommendations-flawed-from)
Most physiological and biological processes function properly only when sufficient amounts of sodium and chloride, contained in salt, are present in the body's cells, respecting the sodium-potassium balance. Hydrochloric acid (HCl), present in the stomach, is one of the essential fluids for digestion. What is perhaps less known is that the body produces this acid from salt.
Low-salt diets contribute to an increase in hormones and blood lipids, with higher plasma levels of renin, cholesterol, and triglycerides. Low sodium intake is associated with poor outcomes in type 2 diabetes, and those on a low-salt diet are more likely to die prematurely due to higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Recent studies have shown that endurance athletes frequently develop low blood sodium, or hyponatremia, even in the absence of cognitive symptoms. Salt restriction can be especially dangerous for the elderly. Older adults with hyponatremia experience more falls and broken hips, and decline in cognitive abilities.
http://chriskresser.com/specialreports/salt/
Potassium is an electrolyte that has a significant effect on muscle contraction and arterial wall relaxation, yet most people barely manage to consume half of the recommended daily amount. The effect of potassium is greater in people with higher blood pressure, as well as in older people, people who eat a lot of salt, and people with dark skin. The research found that women without hypertension who consumed more potassium (almost 3,200 mg/day) had a 21% lower risk of stroke, and those with higher potassium intake were 12% less likely to die during the study period than those with lower intakes.
Low potassium levels have been linked to high insulin and glucose levels, which in turn are linked to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.
A 2018 systematic review of several clinical trials examined the efficacy of lower sodium intake among people with prevalent heart failure and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support salt reduction as a strategy to reduce incident cardiovascular events or mortality in that population.
This research reported on the dose-response relationships of sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium with disease risk. Cardiovascular (CVD) risk in the Framingham Offspring Study, as well as the combined effects of these minerals. Analyses included 2,362 men and women aged 30–64 years without CVD at baseline. Restricted cubic spline curves showed inverse dose-response relationships of potassium and magnesium with CVD risk but not with low sodium intake.
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/1/269/htm (2021)
Salt chloride is required for the endogenous production of hydrochloric acid. With age, hydrochloric acid secretion decreases, causing poor digestion of meats and protein foods in general, minerals, and vitamins.
Hypochlorhydria can result in a deficiency of a protein called "intrinsic gastric mucosal factor." This component is essential for the absorption of vitamin B12, which is involved in the formation of Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause Alzheimer's, dementia, cognitive impairment and memory loss, multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders, mental illness, cardiovascular disease, learning or developmental disorders in children, autism spectrum disorder, autoimmune disease and immune dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and cancer.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2020.00083/full (2020).---
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/7/958 (2023).---
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/emiddt/2023/00000023/00000001/art00011 (2023).---
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0009912023001108 (2023).---
Great research. The chloride in salt is necessary for the endogenous production of hydrochloric acid. With age, hydrochloric acid secretion decreases, causing poor digestion of meats and protein foods in general, non-heme iron, and other minerals that depend on hydrochloric acid, primarily magnesium, chromium, copper, manganese, magnesium, molybdenum, calcium, selenium, and zinc, as well as vitamin B12. Of these minerals, zinc and sodium are both responsible for the production of HCl. Betaine hydrochloride may also be recommended.
Hypochlorhydria can lead to a deficiency of a protein called gastric mucosal intrinsic factor. This component is essential for the absorption of vitamin B12, which is involved in the formation of red blood cells, so its deficiency can lead to pernicious anemia.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause: Alzheimer's, dementia, cognitive impairment and memory loss, multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders, mental illness, cardiovascular disease, learning or developmental disorders in children, autism spectrum disorder, autoimmune disease and immune dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and cancer. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257642/ (2010).---
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41936-020-00148-0 (2020).---
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2020.00083/full (2020).---
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/7/958 (2023).---
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/emiddt/2023/00000023/00000001/art00011 (2023).---
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0009912023001108 (2023).---
The hypertension epidemic is multifactorial (holistic), each factor plays a small role, and is due to:
- Higher blood sugar levels (blood sugar impairs the parasympathetic nervous system more than the sympathetic nervous system, and this imbalance results in higher blood pressure; this is why diabetics almost always have high blood pressure).
- Sodium-potassium imbalance.
- Excess weight (blood pressure needs to be higher to reach all parts of a larger body).
- Lack of sleep contributes to stress (stress raises blood pressure by activating the sympathetic nervous system).
- Too little exercise (exercise reduces stress, keeping arteries healthy).
Few things sum up the absurdity of Evidence-Based Medicine™ more than the restriction of salt for high blood pressure. This is a classic example of introducing a second problem with the hope that this will counter the first problem, without considering a) if there is even any benefit in doing so and b) what the consequences might be.
To this end, the evidence is very clear that restricting sodium will see a drop in blood pressure in about one in five people but that there is zero benefit in cardiovascular events or total mortality. Which would make it pointless, but its worse than that. Sodium restriction causes
Any doctor that robotically passes on these committee-driven guidelines is demonstrating that they have no interest in actually assessing the literature and no curiosity in how the human body works. The literature is clear that this strategy was entirely flawed from the start, based on some farcical research from Lewis Dahl (who had to breed salt-sensitive rats and then feed them 8x the usual salt intake in order to get the results he wanted, and then declare that salt “unequivocally causes hypertension”).
What they should be asking is WHY the body induces high blood pressure… if they did, they would see that this is a clever and elegant adaptation to reduced oxygen availability at cellular level. Starving the body of the sodium it needs to adapt to these challenges is a recipe for major complications. All the issues we see in those consuming a low sodium diet are not only inevitable, but entirely predictable.
Of course hypertension calls for our attention. It demonstrates that something is wrong. But adding a second insult to the system and calling is ‘treatment’ defies both logic and the evidence.
(Article on how these recommendations came into force, the evidence on salt restriction and how to determine the cause of low oxygen availability (the underlying cause of low blood pressure), see here: https://marekdoyle.substack.com/p/salt-recommendations-flawed-from)