High Sodium Diets

[LilacGardenia]

So I have a REALLY low blood pressure which is likely contributing to my fatigue, dizziness, and cognitive issues. One of the recommended remedies is an increased salt intake. Does anyone do this already? I'm overall really healthy and eat a very wholesome diet and stay in my sodium allotment, but I'm worried to what extent increasing my salt intake to boost BP will have in the long term?

Here is the link that recommends it... I know this isn't CFS/ME, but it's similar and this would apply to low BP in general.
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/dysautonomia/dysautonomia.htm#What_is_the_prognosis

 

[Ema]

I take unrefined Celtic sea salt a few times a day in water. I think it is important to differentiate between sea salt and refined table salt. For example, I put the former in my fish tank and the fish thrive. If you put the latter in your aquarium, the fish will not survive.

It has helped a lot with my dizziness and orthostatic intolerance issues. I think that it has been pretty conclusively shown that eating higher sodium does not cause problems in the majority of people and can actually help people with low blood volume.

I get my electrolytes monitored (first thing, fasting) frequently and try to keep my sodium around 142. It's also important to make sure you have sufficient aldosterone as that is one of the hormones involved in sodium and potassium balance. Sea salt can also help flagging adrenals; if you haven't had a saliva cortisol test, I would consider that as well.

 

[xrunner]

I have relatively high sodium and my blood pressure is low-normal.
I guess it would be ok to get some salt if your sodium is lower than it should be. If your levels are normal, the BP issue may be due to other causes and it would seem logical to look at those (HPA?), rather than eating more salt.

 

[Calathea]

How low is really low, and what does your doctor say?

It can be worth trying some extra salt, or else an electrolyte drink, to see if that helps. Add it cautiously and monitor symptoms.

 

[L'engle]

Methyl B12, following Freddd's active b12 protocol, helped me with this problem. I used to have to salt load, but got so that I could not continue it. Salt loading is a good stop-gap for me but didn't seem to offer long term improvement that was viable. It's worth trying, maybe to get you through your term, but do be careful with it.

BTW, as others have said, don't use ordinary table salt. Use sea salt that doesn't have additives. Loading iodized table salt can give you too much iodine.

 

[Sparrow]

I do this, along with around 3L of water per day, some sports drink, and licorice root. I can't say for certain how much of my improvement can be attributed to one things vs the others, but the combination has helped me greatly. I use sea salt.

Like you, I was a bit concerned about the effects of lots of salt intake, but it seems like many of the major risks revolve around high blood pressure. And in the end, I figured that the effects to my body of having insufficient blood volume were probably worse than the effect of the extra salt right now.

My blood pressure hasn't gone back to "normal" levels, but it has improved greatly (it was around 80/53 when I was really bad, often over 100 now). I'm also able to sit up for short periods now, and standing is much easier than it was then. I do keep an eye on my blood pressure pretty regularly with an at home electronic cuff machine, but it has never been high when tested. The other measure I keep an extra eye on is my potassium level, as all of those interventions can lower potassium levels.

I can't speak for long term effects, but I haven't had any noticeable poor effects after almost a year. My hope is that as my body continues to heal and improve in general, I will eventually no longer need the extra salt etc. to keep my BP in a healthy range.

 

[ukxmrv]

Lilac,

CFS patients have been using and talking about salts for a long time now in relation to low blood volume, low BP etc. Have a look for the discussions and internet postings on things like Gookinade

http://www.dfwcfids.org/healing/gokhmbrw.htm

 

[ramakentesh]

I have done this for POTs before but be aware that some of the etiologies behind low blood volume in POTS have effectly altered the set point of blood volume and you cant trick the body into changing that with a volume expander like florinef.

 

[ramakentesh]

Licorice root is great. It ofcourse increased blood volume like a mild florinef but it also stimulates the ang II receptors to increase blood pressure before blood volume and even reduces expression of endothelial nitric oxide to further increase blood pressure acutely. Further it has immunomodulating properties and can be used to cut down the severity of a relapse of an autoimmune condition, acts as an anti inflammatory, has mild acetylcholinesterase inhibiting activities to calm down sympathetic excess and finally even works to reduce late sodium channels to the heart to reduce tachy.