Some questions regarding salt

[optimist]

Oh, and here's another benefit I notice. I get less dry mouth and I pee less!

 

[xchocoholic]

I too keep forgetting... sort of annoying My memory used to be very good before, but now I am like an old man Interesting that you feel the same in regards to feeling better, warmer and getting thick fingers...

I just tagged @liverock to get his / her opinion.

In hindsight, it would've been helpful if I'd learned all this science stuff prior to getting sick.

Lol. People tell me just to use notes but I forget about those too.

 

[xchocoholic]

Oh, and here's another benefit I notice. I get less dry mouth and I pee less!

Interesting. Tx. I'll watch for that.

I have problems with oxalates ( kidney stones) and certain b vits that affect my urination. And if frozen foods have that freezer taste I get horrible dry mouth.

Tx again. X

 

[optimist]

Lol. People tell me just to use notes but I forget about those too.

That's a good one

 

[optimist]

Hmm... I am playing with my newly acquired blood pressure monitor, and now the pressure is 116/68. I wonder if that was the potassium that made it drop like that or just coincidence It is sort of fun studying these things!

 

[xchocoholic]

Hmm... I am playing with my newly acquired blood pressure monitor, and now the pressure is 116/68. I wonder if that was the potassium that made it drop like that or just coincidence It is sort of fun studying these things!

I'm not up on how our bp changes other than watching it drop during the poor man's tilt table test (pmttt) and how crappy I feel when it's in the 70?/50? range. Mine changes regularly but usually stays between 90-120?/70-80?.

I had fun with this and my new blood glucose monitor a few years back. If you can call stabbing yourself fun. Lol.

It's interesting to see these regularly and watch for a pattern vs only at the doctors office. I learned that my blood glucose runs low and I need to bump it regularly. Esp before exerting myself.

Have you done a pmttt yet ? This is how I found out that I had pots and not just oh.

Tc . X

 

[optimist]

Wow! That's very low. In the beginning when I got what ever I have, I could get out of bed, take a few steps, and then I would go more or less "blind". I was just expecting to wake up on the floor. Fortunately I always managed to grab hold of a wall, and regain normal activity. It would surely have been interesting to have measured the pressure then This has improved a lot, and I suspect that with the salt now, it will get quite good

PMTTT, POTS and OH - can you write them out in full please, as we use totally different terms in Norway

 

[xchocoholic]

Good to hear you're feeling better. Feeling wobbly is never fun.

Pmttt = poor man's tilt table test - used instead of tilt table test to dx orthostatic intolerance

Pots = postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

Oh = orthostatic hypotension

The dinet forum has great info on these. It used to be on their homepage. We may have it here too.

The most common treatment for orthostatic hypotension is salt loading.

 

[optimist]

No, I haven't tested for those, but I found your post on Pmttt here

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...t-table-test-pmttt-for-oi-pots-and-nmh.12291/

Seems easy enough to do now that I have a bp monitor

I am reading on OH and POTS now, and it is interesting. Salt is supposed to make you improve if you have POTS due to low blood volume... that's interesting.

Some times, though not very frequent anymore, I got these extreme hard heart beats after some sudden physical activity - could that have any thing to do with these?

 

[xchocoholic]

The pmttt is definitely an easy test. One thing I may not have mentioned back then is the importance of allowing your body to get back to a healthy baseline before doing this. It takes me an hour of laying flat for my body to recover from hypoperfusion. If I try doing this too soon my hr jumps right back up to my pots rate when I stand up.

If you google hypovolemia, low blood volume, you'll see there's more to it than salt loading. I've seen people here get tested for this but I've forgotten what they found out.

I'm not sure if your hard heart beats are from pots, ?, or just "normal" if we stand up too quickly.

Tc ... x

 

[optimist]

I "think" table salt actually gets absorbed better than Himalayan. I just know I feel better faster from table salt.

From what I read, table salt is synthetic? I haven't really tested table salt as there are so much warnings against it, and Himalayan salt seems to do the job. But, perhaps you need bigger doses than your regular 1/8 of table salt when doing Himalayan. Today I took about four 1/2 or 2/3 tea spoons.

Except from many trace minerals, Himalayan and table salt seems to contain 40% sodium and 60% chloride.

 

[optimist]

The pmttt is definitely an easy test. One thing I may not have mentioned back then is the importance of allowing your body to get back to a healthy baseline before doing this.

Can I just put the BP monitor at my night desk and then do it when I wake up in the morning?

 

[CFS_for_19_years]

- My fingers have become sort of thick. It is like they are full of blood, and they are kind of stiff when I try to bend them. Also I feel a kind of pressure in my forehead... do you think that could have anything to do with blood pressure? Normally my blood pressure is at the lover end of very good, and pulse is just above 50. I haven't tested it, and scheduling a doctor takes a couple of weeks...

I met someone with scleroderma and that's what I thought of when you described your fingers. I don't know enough about the disease to say if any of your other symptoms fit the profile, but here's a link that describes scleroderma:

http://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/scleroderma/signs_and_symptoms.html

 

[optimist]

I met someone with scleroderma and that's what I thought of when you described your fingers. I don't know enough about the disease to say if any of your other symptoms fit the profile, but here's a link that describes scleroderma:

http://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/scleroderma/signs_and_symptoms.html

Hmm, no I don't think that one fits me. That seems more of a chronic issue, while with me this happened as I started taking salt... but thanks for suggesting!

 

[optimist]

One question that remains unresolved with me is what is too much salt? I've read that you can kill yourself with it, but I guess other bad things can happen before reaching that kind of a dose. Anyone who knows where the absolute maximum should be at?

 

[SpecialK82]

@xchocoholic I'm surprised that salt water burns in the esophagus but the salt straight, after dissolving on your tongue, does not, hmmm. I used to drink Poweraide Zero until it started to burn in my esophagus. I believe the burning is due to acid reflux problems (due to slow stomach-emptying) and my throat is just continually raw from the acid. I take Nexium twice daily for it but still is there, also Reglan improves the acid somewhat. I just tried drinking salt water this past week and it burned as well (also couldn't stomach the taste).

So my good ME/CFS doc advised me to try salt tablets called ThermoTabs

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_4b38g62ouc_b

They are easier to take for me than drinking it, but still experimenting to find a helpful dose. And BTW, the tablets are buffered so might be easier on the tummy. For you though, if the salt on your tongue works, no reason to change it.

 

[xchocoholic]

Hi @SpecialK82

Thanks for the info on Thermotabs. It's on my grocery list now. It seems like a quicker way to get more sodium.

What do you mean by you're still working on the dosage ?
Me too but it's because I can't remember to salt load unless my finger tips are prunish.

I don't notice any acid reflux anymore but I'm still getting constant irritation in my esophagus. I have too many allergies to manage and haven't found a good non drowsy allergy med. I have slow stomach emptying too tho. Hmmm. Tx.

I allow my saliva to breakdown the salt very slowly so it doesn't burn. And I wait until it's completely out of my mouth and my saliva has normalized before taking more. That's why I take so little at a time. It's the only way this works for me.

After playing with this today I noticed the himalaya sea salt burned my tongue but the Hain sea salt didn't. Could be that the Him was in big chunks and the Hain sea salt was tiny so the Him sat on top of my tongue much longer.

I didn't notice my fingertips recovering as well from the Himalaya salt either tho. Will try again tomorrow.

Tc .. x

 

[xchocoholic]

Hmm, no I don't think that one fits me. That seems more of a chronic issue, while with me this happened as I started taking salt... but thanks for suggesting!

Me too.

 

[xchocoholic]

One question that remains unresolved with me is what is too much salt? I've read that you can kill yourself with it, but I guess other bad things can happen before reaching that kind of a dose. Anyone who knows where the absolute maximum should be at?

I did a quick google, dinet sodium pots, and found from 10 - 15 grams of salt not sodium is recommended.

I don't feel well past the 3 gram salt area and never tried forcing it. Yet ?

Tc .. x

 

[WillowJ]

One question that remains unresolved with me is what is too much salt? I've read that you can kill yourself with it, but I guess other bad things can happen before reaching that kind of a dose. Anyone who knows where the absolute maximum should be at?

Table salt is sodium (Na+) chloride (Cl-). Wherever sodium goes, water will follow. This is how salt is used to raise blood volume. If you are using too much Na+, it could raise your blood pressure too high.

My doc told me to watch the blood pressure, as an indicator of how much salt was enough/ too much.

Also blood serum is in a concentration with more electrolytes in addition to Na+ and Cl-, and there are more which are key in the body than these two. Some people use either a commercial electrolyte solution (some will say they are formulated to be like blood serum in electrolyte balance: I personally feel comfortable with that) or a home-mixed one (these often use salt substitute as a source of K+; I haven't yet shopped for one with acceptable additives, so I am not sure whether one safe for me exists).

I guess maybe in chronic treatment, the other electrolytes might matter more than in acute cases?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_rehydration_therapy
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/69227/1/WHO_FCH_CAH_06.1.pdf?ua=1&ua=1

It seems that sugar or starch might be needed for adequate absorption of sodium in a swallowed solution:
http://infectiousdiseases.about.com/od/treatment/a/ORT.htm

While doing salt loading, it would be good to check in with a doctor now and then.