Salt and water, listen to your body?

[Violet]

I was reading a medical paper a while back about salt cravings. I never forgot the casus* it mentioned about a child that as early as the age of 1 craved salt, first licking it from crackers, later on directly ingesting from the shaker (secretly in the middle of the night, when parents were asleep). When the parents, naturally worried, realised they couldn't stop this behaviour, they sought medical help. The child was hospitalised for research and tragically died after that (the hospital diet was low in sodium). Apparently this child's body lacked the capacity to synthesise the sodium-retaining adrenal mineralocorticoid (MC) which made it impossible for the kidneys to retain the salt which caused him to make up by a large salt intake. So, in this case the child was just listening to his body.

There are guidelines for salt consumption, daily intake, what's healthy and what not. And the same for water. Drink at least x liters of water a day.

Like the child on salt, other people listen to their bodies by just drinking a meager pint of water a day (in tea, soup, whatever counts as liquid) and they feel fine. Other people could not survive on that pint, their mouths would run dry, they would start feeling dehydrated, exhausted, while that first group could even add some physical activity to that habit, and still not be compelled to drink the full bottle of water.

I wonder if this all is a question of listening to your body and every body being different or are they indeed unhealthy ways of living, and how to make the difference between those two judgments, especially when one doesn't become sick consuming too much salt (like the child), or not enough water.


*= Wilkins L, Richter CP. A great craving for salt by a child with corticoadrenal insufficiency. JAMA 1940;114:866–868.

[Selkie]

...I wonder if this all is a question of listening to your body and every body being different or are they indeed unhealthy ways of living, and how to make the difference between those two judgments, especially when one doesn't become sick consuming too much salt (like the child), or not enough water...

Yes, it is a matter of listening to one's own, unique body, with its own, unique biochemistry. Guidelines are guidelines, not rules, and they are formulated with the "average" person in mind, which would be fine, except that there are no average people.

http://www.amazon.com/Biochemical-Individuality-Roger-Williams/dp/0879838930

[EWO]

I am always told to drink lots of water but I cant. I am rarely thirsty. In the morning if I drink water i would throw up, the taste is just awful, and I can never drink more than 1 cup.
if I am working out and sweating a lot THEN my body craves water and I can drink a lot. But under normal circumstances I dont and cant have much water.

So i just stopped listening to my parents and I drink when my body tells me to drink.

[betoobig]

It is so important to listen to your own body and respect others people´s lisenting to theirs...
My smallest kid( 5) loves salt. i am thankfull for this thread. Now i am confirmed we are doing right leting her decide and leting her notice when is enough.

LOVE

Juan

[Cristi Copac]

in my experience water is for flushing of internal toxins out and for normal functioning of the body.
salt on the other hand has to be natural either from sea or from natural rocks.
what i think salt does is what it does in nature. it absorbs natural compounds from the environment.(ever notice that if you leave salt jar open it catches the exterior taste from the environment and tastes and smells different?) a salt flush means that it cleanses the digestive tract. added on food it makes the food that you eat less toxic even if it's natural. and at the core i think it has also the value of being a natural mineral complex with more than 60 natural minerals that are very good for the body as nutrition.especially for the heart. but food and medicine is an art form and not a science . you have to know your craft well. i also believe in instinct, senses, and personal experience which is the same and unique in the same time compaired to everyone else.

[Selene]

Every animal, every mammal (including us) on this planet needs salt in order to function. We need a critical minimum amount. That’s why salt licks are so important for all other critters, and why salt has always been a valuable commodity in civilized trade.

Our mammalian neurosystems – our brains and muscles – require salt and potassium (from fruits and veggies) in order to signal clearly from one nerve to the next, in order for our body to function, move, and breathe. Salt and potassium are the critical source of our very heartbeat, our brain function, our connection to ‘here’. It’s vital.

In temperate or polar climates we normally get enough salt & potassium, but … I was recently in Burma (Myanmar) in daily temperatures exceeding 40 C – or 104 F, above safe body temperature. Big sweating. Everyone in my group was slurping water like no tomorrow, afraid of ‘dehydrating’…. And after about two weeks, some began to feel nauseous, constipated (or diarrhea), sleepy, headachy, sloppy…etc etc. It wasn’t just ‘something they ate…’

They were quite sick. These were symptoms of loss of neuromuscular coordination from sweating loss of salt and potassium, not lack of ‘fluid’ per se. Real, clinical dehydration, not the imaginary fashionable sucking on a water bottle.

Water be damned.

They had sweated out all their salt and potassium. Their nerves were drained of vital minerals because they had not been eating enough fruits, veggies and salting their other food. (I must add that local Burmese were far more carefully adapted, and could genetically function on much more refined and balanced consumption of traditional Burmese foods.)

The ‘cure’ for my friends was a big dose of salt – some chips and saltines with your beer? – and big glasses of fresh juice – plus some salty soup and fresh fruit for a meal or so. I crammed it down their throats, sometimes under some protest. They usually recovered, actually, within about 20 minutes after consuming these and a salt tablet or two that I always travel with in the tropics. Seeing them literally come back to life is really rewarding.

They had been eating ‘a normal western diet’ of sweet cereal and pastry for breakfast, sandwiches and pasta at lunch and whatever for dinner under brutal circumstances… And yes, they totally were afraid of “salt…OMG…the devil….no…it will kill me….”

No.

Salt –and potassium – will save your barking life. That’s what dehydration really teaches you.

Cheers,

Selene

[Cristi Copac]

way to go for solving the problem. what type of salt did you use?

there is another theory that salt keeps the water in the body and that could mean that they were dehydrated and the water just did not stay in the body for normal use. it leaked.

[Violet]

Yes, I hear that one too, from women dieting: don't eat too much salt. It will make you retain the water and it will pull your weight up.

[ThePythonicCow]

Yes, I hear that one too, from women dieting: don't eat too much salt. It will make you retain the water and it will pull your weight up.

I would suggest looking into the variety of minerals (water soluble forms of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and many more trace minerals) that the body requires for best functioning, and insuring that they are present in one's diet, in proper proportion. Then letting the body find it's own water balance.

However, that's easier for me to say than for some, being an old bachelor :).

[Hervé]

Listening to one's body rather than to urban legends... definitely :)

The trouble with electrolytes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolyte) is that they work in tandems/pairs like Sodium (Na)/Potassium (K) and Calcium (Ca)/Magnesium (Mg),

That trouble is furthered since there is an endemic deficiency of Magnesium and Potassium in current agricultural products which create an imbalance in those pairs that's counteracted by various medical corporations into decreasing the other side of those pairs, namely salt (Na) or increasing/supplementing additional calcium (Ca) and accordingly, further enhancing the deficiency of one or both pairs, one way or another.

Then there is the further problem of industrially "refined" table salt and/or calcium supplements which do not help in anyway.

Mineral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_lick) or "Salt Licks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_lick)" is the answer in the animal kingdom... those "evaporites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvite)" contain all that's needed in terms of paired electrolytes as well as needed trace elements. Hence your "Himalayan Salt crystal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_salt)" which could be used as a "Licking Stone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvite)" :)

Best thread to understand the role of a deficiency of one of the paired electrolytes:

Got Potassium? Maybe that is why you don't have glowing health! (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?28983-Got-Potassium-Maybe-that-is-why-you-don-t-have-glowing-health-)

... where one could learn that it's not the salt (Sodium) intake that creates the water retention but, rather, it's the Potassium deficiency which generates the "over-weighing."

[Selene]

way to go for solving the problem. what type of salt did you use?

Just plain old table salt. Salt tablets – which are inexpensive but can be hard to find at your pharmacy – are also just salt/sodium chloride. But they pack easily in a small Ziploc and are easy to use with whatever liquid you have on hand.



There is another theory that salt keeps the water in the body and that could mean that they were dehydrated and the water just did not stay in the body for normal use. it leaked.

That’s only partially correct. Salt and potassium maintain the balance of your electrolytes – which controls the function and signaling of your muscles as well as the amount of water in your body. Electrolytes control your heart, brain, kidneys and other vital organs.

You can actually fatally “overdose” on plain water, a condition called “water intoxication” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication in which drinking excessive plain water – usually in association with exercise, marathons etc – can dilute the electrolytes in your body too much. This can cause fatal heart or breathing problems. Hence the commercial development of Gatorade-type drinks for athletes.



I would suggest looking into the variety of minerals (water soluble forms of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and many more trace minerals) that the body requires for best functioning, and insuring that they are present in one's diet, in proper proportion. Then letting the body find it's own water balance.



Eating plenty of fresh fruit and veggies is certainly the easiest, safest and most well-balanced way to get the proper minerals, salt included.

In western China, in the great Taklamakan desert, travelers transport their water supply quite ingeniously in the form of - wait for it - watermelons. These juicy fruits supply the perfect blend of hydration, electrolytes and carbohydrates for a long journey. And bonus: their ‘containers’ are organic and entirely biodegradable…

Trust Mother Nature to get the technology right. :sun:

Cheers,

Selene

[Cristi Copac]

selene from natural medicine doctors and from my experience the table salt is toxic to the body.
it is just NaCl. in the natural form it has much more elements .there is a huge correlation between table salt and hypertension which is a symptom of toxicty so i'm quessing that the table salt worked because it functioned as absorbant for intestinal toxicity or as water retention but healthy it is not.
i repeat... in my view and and natural medicine's view but i will never deny or refute anyone else's results or experiences .

[DeeMetrios]

Title should read Sodium & water ......

Every animal, every mammal (including us) on this planet needs salt in order to function.
Cheers,Selene
the body needs "sodium" to function not salt.
Learn the truth about salt here ...http://aquariusthewaterbearer.com/the-salt-conspiracy/#
cheers

[Rich]

That's pseudoscience. DeeMetrios.
Its possible to get enough sodium from food alone but not likely.

[DeeMetrios]

That's pseudoscience. DeeMetrios.
Its possible to get enough sodium from food alone but not likely.

What exactly do you mean em ex ?
My point is this , salt is bad for the human body .

[Rich]

I used to believe that until I actually lived without taking salt for a year or so.

[petra]

Title should read Sodium & water ......

Every animal, every mammal (including us) on this planet needs salt in order to function.
Cheers,Selene
the body needs "sodium" to function not salt.
Learn the truth about salt here ...http://aquariusthewaterbearer.com/the-salt-conspiracy/#
cheers

To me it looks like more of a chlorine conspiracy than a salt one. According to Wikipedia, chlorine was the first gaseous chemical warfare agent, used in WWI