The Truth About Salt, Sodium, High Blood Pressure, And Diabetes...

If you're a Type 2 Diabetic or Pre-diabetic, chances are, you may also have high blood pressure (hypertension). Much like the 6.2 million Americans who have Type 2 diabetes and don't know it, one-third of individuals with high blood pressure don't know they have hypertension.

Approximately 73% of adults with Diabetes also have high blood pressure. Of course, high blood pressure, if not controlled, can lead to congestive heart failure, kidney failure, stroke, cardiac arrest (heart attack, even death.

Just as there is so much misinformation about carbohydrates, naturally occurring sugars, and refined-processed sugars... Unfortunately, the same is true when it comes to sodium (or 'salt' as we know it).

The truth is, iodized table salt - the kind most of us use, along with the refined salt that's a part on many of the processed foods we consume - is harmful for not only Diabetics, but for those who don't have high blood pressure, as well. Sodium (the technical term for salt) is not harmful for us. Instead, it's a very important mineral in our diet. The term "sodium" is probably no stranger to you, given that it's frequently mentioned in the news and is always listed on a food label. But what is it, really? Sodium is a mineral that we need to stay healthy. All of the body's fluids, such as sweat and blood, contain sodium.

Sodium also works along with other minerals (also known as electrolytes), such as potassium, to regulate the shift of fluid in and out of the cells in our bodies. Fluids carry nutrients into our cells, and carry wastes out of our cells. The kidneys, in turn, help regulate the amount of sodium and fluid in our bodies so that they stay in balance.

How Salt Affects Blood Pressure:
Salt (sodium) is essential to our bodies. Normally the kidneys control the level of salt. If there is too much salt, the kidneys pass it into urine, or you might also sweat it out through perspiration. But when our salt intake levels are very high, the kidneys cannot keep up, and the salt ends up in our bloodstream. Salt attracts water. When there is too much salt in the blood, the salt draws more water into the blood. More water increases the volume of blood which raises blood pressure.

Excess sodium in your body can also lead to fluid retention in your cells and tissues. You can easily tell if this is happening because your ankles might be puffy, or your rings might be tight on your fingers.

Sodium does more than regulate fluid balance, by the way. It also works closely with potassium and chloride ions to help your nerves conduct nerve impulses. So, sodium isn't a bad thing. But, like many things in life, too much of it isn't so good. The key, then, is taking in the right amount of sodium to maintain good health.

Now I'm confused?... "You just said too much sodium isn't good for us, but you also said sodium is important to my health. How can it be both ways..."

If you're nodding your head in agreement with this last statement, let's try to clear up the confusion and misinformation.

Most people buy iodized salt (table salt) from the grocery store, and don't think a thing about it. They don’t realize that good salt (natural salt - sodium) can help give them good health, while refined salt (table salt) can create some health risks.

Regular table salt may also contain other additives including aluminum silicate, dextrose, bleaching elements, and other chemicals.  Since it's so refined and practically pure sodium chloride (although 2% is added chemicals), it's quite easy to consume too much salt filled food. On top of that, Table Salt is dried at over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit, changing its very structure.

Excessive table salt is found in processed foods and most restaurant and fast food meals. It actually lingers in the body long after it's been useful. To lessen our risks, we could simply eliminate processed foods from our diet, but instead, the enemy is simply "salt" without any further explanation. 

When we look at its composition, we see that the real culprit is Table Salt (virtually pure sodium chloride, additional chemicals, a total lack of minerals.) That's not food... That's a strong chemical. It is not alive with minerals, as true natural salt is. It is dead. At the same time, a salt-free (or rather, a natural salt-free) diet can also promote aging and illness, and is not the answer for most of us.

Natural Salt (sodium) comes from the sea. It may have been laid down centuries ago in salt deposits, or it may have been dehydrated from pure sea water. Natural Salt comes in a variety of colors. It is an important part of life, and is actually good for us.

It enhances the nutrition of the food we eat, even fresh vegetables and fruit. It is alive. It wakes up our taste buds and enhances our body. Plus, it tastes so much better. While grocery store table salt is mostly chemical sodium chloride, natural salt has up to 84 active minerals in it.

Your body craves salt. In fact, your blood actually contains 0.9% salt, which maintains the delicate balance of sodium throughout your body. Just about every system in your body needs salt to make it work. It is especially important for your nervous system, but every body structure absolutely requires it. The National Academy of Sciences advises that we consume at least 500 mg. of sodium a day to maintain good health. How much a person actually needs varies quite a bit, depending on their genetics and daily routine.

The Healing Effect of Natural Salt
For thousands of years, salt has been known as a panacea. Alchemists called it 'the fifth element' - besides water, earth, air and fire - because its qualities were comparable only to ether, the actual fifth element.

Natural Salt is a critical part of our life and health. We need salt, so cutting salt out of our diets is not the right approach. Salt is in our sweat and tears, and it's in our blood and bones... literally.

In our bodies, natural salt:

 In proper proportion to water, it regulates and normalizes blood pressure.
  Stabilizes irregular heartbeats.
  Helps to balance blood sugar levels.
  Helps us maintain energy levels.
  In combination with other essential minerals, sodium helps regulate metabolism.
  Helps remove acidity from our cells and is a strong alkalizer.
  Helps our body absorb nutrients.
  Enables the liver and kidneys and adrenal glands to function properly.
  Helps maintain the electrolyte balance inside and outside of cells and helps the cells communicate and function properly.
  Helps prevent muscle cramps, dizziness, exhaustion, and convulsions.
  Supports life, like water and air do.
  Helps flush mucus and congestion.
  Helps control saliva (otherwise saliva would pour right out of our mouths while we sleep).
  Natural Salt works with water to help re-hydrate us.
  Natural Salt helps make strong bones and bodies.
  Natural Salt helps brain cells function properly.
  Natural Salt can help regulate sleep and can help us get a good night's sleep.
  Natural Salt is a natural antihistamine and can help relieve allergies.
  Natural Salt is necessary for proper digestion and works to eliminate digestive problems.
  Natural Salt helps build a strong immune system, and prevents disease and health problems (like gout, spider veins, and more). It can help our bodies heal (from surgery, sickness, burns, mental disorders, depression, etc.), and stay healthy.
  Natural Salt is a necessary part of good health.

How Salt Became Sodium Chloride (Table Salt) - Very Important
With the advent of industrial development, natural salt was "chemically cleaned" and reduced to the combination of sodium and chloride. Essential minerals and trace elements were removed as impurities. However, sodium chloride is an unnatural, isolated, unwholesome substance having nothing in common with natural salt (sodium).

How Table Salt Burdens the Body
While our body only requires the minute amount of 0.007 ounces of salt per day, most of us suffer from a lack of salt, even though we’re over-saturated with sodium chloride. When our consumption of salt is less than 0.007 ounces per day, salt craving kicks in. The average, per capita, daily consumption of table salt in the U.S. is between 0.4 ounces and 0.7 ounces. However, our body is only able to excrete 0.17 ounces to 0.25 ounces a day through our kidneys, depending on our age, constitution and sex. The body recognizes table salt as an aggressive cellular poison, an unnatural substance, and wants to eliminate it as quickly as possible in order to protect itself. This causes a constant overburden on our organs of excretion. In almost every preserved product, salt is used as part of the preservation process. So, by adding salt to the already-salted food, the body receives more salt than it can get rid of.

The body now tries to isolate the over-dose of salt. In this process, water molecules surround the sodium chloride in order to ionize it into sodium and chloride to neutralize it. For this process, the water is taken from our cells as the body sacrifices its most perfectly structured cell water in order to neutralize sodium chloride. With this, the dehydrated body cells die.

The Consequences of Consuming Table Salt
The result of consuming common table salt is the formation of overly acidic edema, or excess fluid in the body tissue, which is also the cause of cellulite. That's why doctors tell us to avoid salt, table salt, that is. For every .035 ounces of sodium chloride that cannot be eliminated, the body uses 23 times (23x) the amount of its own cell water to neutralize the salt.

If the sodium chloride is still too high, re-crystallization of the table salt occurs as the body uses available non-degradable animal proteins (as those found in milk), which also have no value and cannot be broken down and eliminated. The body uses these proteins to produce uric acid in order to get rid of the excess salt.

As the body cannot dispose of uric acid, it binds itself with the sodium chloride to form new crystals that are deposited directly in the bones and joints. This is the cause of different kinds of rheumatism such as arthritis, gout, and kidney and gall bladder stones.

This re-crystallization is the body's band-aid solution for the cells and organs in order to protect the body from irreparable damage of irresponsible food intake. But in the long run, it poisons the system because those substances cannot be disposed of.

Popular diets say you should reduce or even eliminate dietary salt for good health, especially for cardiovascular disease. Perhaps you should reduce or eliminate refined table salt, which can act like a poison in your body, and be more of a risk. But the research is undeniable: Reducing or eliminating natural salt is basically wrong. Your body absolutely requires salt, but it has to be the right kind.

So, What's The Right Kind Of Salt?
Obviously, it's natural salt that hasn't been processed or refined... But trying to find the right kind of natural salt (as we've personally discovered) isn't as simple as it sounds.

During our research, we came across quite a few companies that sold salt they said was healthier than table salt... And in most instances, this was true. Most of the natural salts we learned about fell into 2 categories: Either sea salt, or a specific kind of sea salt called Himalayan Crystal. To make things more confusing, there were several companies selling what they termed, Crystal Himalayan salt.

It became clear to us as our research continued that not all natural salts were equal - Some were better than others. Most of the companies mentioned that natural, unrefined salt contains 84 minerals, and that is the key difference between table salt and natural salt. However, when we tried to determine how many of these 84 minerals each of the natural salts we looked at contained, there was only one company that actually listed these 84 minerals and had the third party documentation to back up their claim that their product did in fact contain these important minerals. That natural salt was Original Himalayan Salt.

Certificate of the Analysis of The Original Himalayan Crystal Salt™
From the book, Water & Salt, The Essence of Life by Dr. Barbara Hendel MD and Peter Ferreira

Hydrogen, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Flouride, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulfur, Chloride, Potassium, Calcium, Scandium, Titanium, Vanadium, Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Gallium, Germanium, Arsenic, Selenium, Bromine, Rubidium, Strontium, Ytterbium, Zirconium, Niobium, Molybdenum, Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Silver, Cadmium, Indium, Tin, Antimony, Tellurium, Iodine, Cesium, Barium, Lanthan, Cerium, Praseodynium, Neodymium, Samarium, Europium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Erbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, Lutetium, Hafnium, Tantalum, Wolfram, Rhenium, Osmium, Iridium, Platinum, Gold, Mercury, Thallium, Lead, Bismuth, Polonium, Astat, Francium, Radium Actinium, Thorium, Protactinium, Uranium, Neptunium, Plutonium

Additional Combined Elements: Water H2O, Ammonium, Nitrate, Phosphate, Hydrogencarbonate, Titration

Scientific research has demonstrated the positive effects of the Original Himalayan Crystal Salt on a myriad of body functions.

  Re-mineralizes the body with 84 minerals and trace elements essential to health.
  Ionic/colloidal form assists in cellular absorption of minerals (anxtrom size)
  Replenishes electrolytes and helps to balance the body’s pH.
  Significant positive changes in respiratory, circulatory, organ connective tissue and nervous system functions.
  Hand-mined with respect for Nature, the environment, the bio-energetic properties and the workers.

Natural health practitioners are convinced that good Himalayan crystal sea salt can improve your health. It keeps you safe and healthy during exercise; in fact, high-altitude hikers make sure they get enough so they don’t go into hyperthermia.

Taking adequate natural salt has improved and even eliminated Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Hypertension and stomach cancer have been linked to salt imbalance from improper dietary intake. Cystic fibrosis has been linked to improper salt metabolism.

Expectant mothers are always advised to take enough salt in order to help create a healthy infant.

If you've never tried good natural salt, you are going to be amazed at how good it tastes, and how affordable it is. You may also be surprised at how quickly your health improves from using good, natural, organic salt.

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Common Table Salt   The unnatural crystals are totally isolated from each other and dead. In order for the body to try to metabolize these crystals, it must sacrifice tremendous amounts of energy with very little results, resulting in a damaging loss and zero gain.The salt deposits in our bodies look similar to this photo, isolated and dead.	Sea Salt   Irregular and isolated crystalline structures disconnected from the natural elements surrounding them. Because of this, the vital minerals, however many it may contain, cannot be absorbed by the body unless the body expends tremendous energy to vitalize them. The net gain is small with an even greater loss of energy.	Original Himalayan Crystal Salt®   The balanced crystalline structure reveals fine branching, no shadows or rough edges. The crystal is not isolated from the inherent mineral elements but is connected to them in a harmonious state. This tells us that the energy content, in the form of minerals, is balanced and can be easily metabolized by the body. This crystal is full of life. When taken as food, it will have a vital energetic effect on the body. The result is only a net gain for the body with zero energy loss.