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salt raise cortisol?

Messages
426
Location
southeast asia
I read on the web that salt can increase cortisol.

Back then i try increase salt(cause i have low bp also pots symptoms)
and after that i get morning(when i wake up) palpitation more. Although i dont know if thats the culprit.

I try to check with saliva test and the cortisol came up high. (Although not 100% sure if thats accurate)

So since high cortisol wreck the body.
How to deal with it. I mean the blood volume, bp, and high cortisol.

Isnt it a dilemma?
 

aaron_c

Senior Member
Messages
691
Hi @kisekishiawase

Have you tried mixing some potassium with the salt? Maybe from a banana, or else potassium citrate (chloride can be hard on the stomach). I asked some friends with POTS about this, and while one of them said that extra potassium wasn't helpful the other three said they needed some potassium to go with the sodium...I think the amount varied (and I'd take potassium pretty supplementation pretty slowly in any case), but one estimate was about half as much potassium as sodium. If this is the issue, you'd probably have to experiment a bit to get it right, which would include being aware of how much potassium is in what you eat day-to-day as well.

I hadn't heard that salt could increase cortisol (but I only know so much) so I googled around. I found, if not the article you read at least an article along the same vein--"high salt intake increases cortisol." Here is the abstract of the study. I'm having problems with sci-hub again so I've only read the abstract. But have...at least some questions about the conclusions that other people (not the original authors, it would seem) are taking from the paper.

1. The study was observational, meaning they didn't give people more salt, they just looked to see if people with higher salt intake had higher other stuff. This means we don't know whether the extra salt was driving the hormonal and pathological differences they observed, or whether those differences caused people to crave (and eat) more salt. The authors of the paper seem to know this and only mention that they have found a correlation. It's other websites that assume the high sodium diet is the cause rather than the effect.

2. Even if we assume that high salt is the cause of everything the study found it associated with, the high cortisol levels were only in urine. While high cortisol excretion would necessarily imply that the people eating high salt diets were producing more cortisol, we don't know whether this means they had higher blood levels of cortisol--they could have been producing more cortisol because their body was excreting cortisol more quickly.

Which is all to say that you could be right, high salt intake could be increasing your cortisol. But since high salt intake is potentially helpful with your POTS I'd be hesitant to throw out such a simple, cheap and useful therapy without at the very least more testing.

If you're worried about high cortisol levels, there are certainly things you can do (if you aren't doing them already) like avoiding sugar or anything that would cause a blood sugar spike and taking fish oil (or eating fish). At the risk of sharing something I read in a not-entirely-trustworthy book 15 years ago, I'm curious if you just got sick because I thought high cortisol was something only the recently sick ME/CFS sufferers had (I'm open to being proven wrong!). And while we're at it, do you have ME/CFS or just low BP/POTS?

In any case I'm sorry to hear about your symptoms and I hope you find something simple that works for you. Best of luck.
 
Messages
426
Location
southeast asia
@aaron_c hi thank you for the reply :)
I already avoiding sugar since ive got bad reaction to it.
Unfortunately i cant take much potassium either. Since i took betablocker once or twice and it retain potassium in the body so i have to limit potassium intake.
I have pots symptoms since years ago. And some cfs symptoms. But couldnt really get test/diagnose due to bad medical system in my place. Since the disease is not common.

@Misfit Toy but arent there 2 different problems and treatments? High cortisol vs low cortisol.
 

pamojja

Senior Member
Messages
2,384
Location
Austria
Unfortunately i cant take much potassium either. Since i took betablocker once or twice and it retain potassium in the body so i have to limit potassium intake.

Are you sure? I thought the potassium retaining properties only last as long one takes betablocker? With the next medical checkup would check for serum electrolytes for sure.
 

pamojja

Senior Member
Messages
2,384
Location
Austria
I read on the web that salt can increase cortisol.
..
How to deal with it. I mean the blood volume, bp, and high cortisol.

Actually in my case it looks a bid different. Always had lower than optimal serum sodium levels (normal range 136 - 145 mmol/mol; optimal 142 -145). And very deficient in hair tissue mineral analysis. Potassium optimal in serum, and as deficient as sodium in hair. Have optimal blood pressure despite high cortisol and low sodium.
 

pamojja

Senior Member
Messages
2,384
Location
Austria
Did you get up in the morning and went to the lab to draw blood to in order to get cortisol measured?

Either through my doctors office, or a lab, or at a hospital with their own in-house lab all AM. Though one thing which might falsify results a bit is that I need at least 10 hours of sleep. Therefore having to get up early morning is very stressful just by itself to me. However, also had 3 24-hour urine cortisol tested. 2 of which been above normal too.
 

Gondwanaland

Senior Member
Messages
5,092
having to get up early morning is very stressful just by itself to me.
That was my point.
However, also had 3 24-hour urine cortisol tested. 2 of which been above normal too.
This should be more accurate, although this seems like low cortisol (or low thyroid?):
I need at least 10 hours of sleep.

In my experience, 2 things raise corticol considerably: low carb (hi sat fat) diet and zinc.

I haven't had my cortisol measured in a long time, so I go by symptoms:
  • early awakening/sleeplessness/insomnia = high cortisol
  • getting up in good disposition = ideal cortisol
  • very hard to get out of bed in the morning = low cortisol

I am currently supplementing with zinc, and it raises my cortisol too much. I had to try many forms of zinc and different timing until I found a tolerable way to supplement: Zn glycinate at dinner (+ low dose Bcomplex), and have been sleeping well. Still must improve the early wakening though (5AM). Then I take my thyroid replacement and sleep deeply again and it gets difficult to get out bed.

I also noticed that have a high Boron food at bedtime improves sleep quality (honey, apple), also lavender aromatherapy stuff.
 
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Gondwanaland

Senior Member
Messages
5,092
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature24628
Salt-responsive gut commensal modulates TH17 axis and disease
Abstract

A Western lifestyle with high salt consumption can lead to hypertension and cardiovascular disease. High salt may additionally drive autoimmunity by inducing T helper 17 (TH17) cells, which can also contribute to hypertension. Induction of TH17 cells depends on gut microbiota; however, the effect of salt on the gut microbiome is unknown. Here we show that high salt intake affects the gut microbiome in mice, particularly by depleting Lactobacillus murinus. Consequently, treatment of mice with L. murinus prevented salt-induced aggravation of actively induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and salt-sensitive hypertension by modulating TH17 cells. In line with these findings, a moderate high-salt challenge in a pilot study in humans reduced intestinal survival of Lactobacillus spp., increased TH17 cells and increased blood pressure. Our results connect high salt intake to the gut–immune axis and highlight the gut microbiome as a potential therapeutic target to counteract salt-sensitive conditions.