Salt Deficiency: the cause of many serious diseases http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/salt.htm#1

There was a time when I didn’t even have salt in the kitchen. Yes, I admit it. I can (or hopefully used to be) just as susceptable to media hype, that latches on to easily marketable over-simplifications for the sake of selling more newspapers or whatever, as the next person. The reality is electrolytes found in salt, especially sea salt and high mineral Himalayan salt are absolutely essential to life.

“An eight-year study of a New York City hypertensive population stratified for sodium intake levels found those on low-salt diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as those on normal-sodium diets.”

That’s a pretty shocking statistic, isn’t it! Especially since it’s the people who are trying to be healthy are the ones who actually do things like cut back on salt. Runners for example. And if they drink distilled water (with all the electrolytes removed), they would be even at greater risk since the electrolytes in water are the pre-condition for the body absorbing rather than losing electrolytes.

That’s one thing. The other is that as the body becomes acidic from the lactic acid produced by physical exertion, it will attempt to regain acid base equilibrium ie. balance body pH by pulling electolytes from anywhere it can get them… bones for example. Of course exercise usually is not able to restore the normal alkaline balance, as is obviated by hyperventilation.

Add to that the risk of fibrillation (disruption of the electrical activity of the heart) during running (the acid pH during cardio workouts can imbalance the electric action potential of positive and negative ions inside and outside the heart cells) and it could explain why the risk of heart stroke or cardiac arrest is so high amongst those who would follow a health fad like reducing salt intake.

I still don’t overdose on salt, however I now know to drink mineral water especially when exercising, I also take himalayan salt baths, especially on days during a full moon when the body will absorb more electrolytes, and I add a dab if it makes a dish better.

I’ve also discovered the daily cardio routine that prevents the acidic pH imbalance caused by most exercise.