What Too Much Salt Does to Your Body

Do you know why rocky mountain goats climb the steep mountain or why they climb dams? Well, the answer is for salt. Every living being needs salt. Salt is now available but it was not always the case and ancient people needed to do their best to transport salt. Not having enough salt can cause hyponatremia which can result in death too. So we can say no salt is bad but what about too much salt. Will it make us a superman or will it kill us? Let’s find out what too much salt does to your body.

Body retain water:

Our body loves balance. If one balance is broken body will set new parameters to achieve a similar balance. Likewise, our body likes to keep a certain water-to-salt ratio in our blood. If we eat too much salt our kidneys will retain more water to balance the salt. This will cause our hands and feet to swell. It will also make us feel bloat and in long run may cause kidney failure.

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High blood pressure:

If you intake a high amount of salt you can suffer from sudden high blood pressure. This happens due to sudden high blood flow through arteries and blood vessels. This is often used to up falling blood pressure in low blood pressure patients. If you are a patient with high blood pressure then you should avoid having too much salt.

The thirst won’t go away:

If you have too much salt or eat foods with too much salt like a steak, you may feel that you are feeling the urge to drink more water. Even after drinking water, you may still feel thirsty. This is a defense mechanism of the body against too much salt. There is a reason why the body does this as the other option is hypernatremia. In this process, your cell will lose water to get the correct water-salt ratio. In an extreme case, this may result in death. This is the reason why you should not drink saltwater from the sea.

Sudden diarrhea:

If you eat foods with too much salt you may experience sudden diarrhea. This is the process in which your body tries to excrete excess salt from the body.

These were the short-term effect of having too much salt in your body.

Now let’s see what happens if you have a habit of eating too salty foods.

Increase of stomach cancer risk factors:

If you eat too salty foods or have too much raw salt regularly then, you will suffer from twice the vulnerability from stomach cancers.

High blood pressure:

If you are a frequent consumer of high salt content then you will develop high blood pressure. This is a condition you should try to avoid if possible.

Risk of heart disease and sudden heart failure:

It can happen due to increased blood flow in vessels and arteries. This increased blood flow and pressure will damage your heart and blood circulation system.

How much salt is too much:

To have a fatal dose of salt you need to eat 35–60 grams of salt which is very unlikely. But if you have a precondition of high blood pressure then having 10 grams of salt regularly may speak trouble for you.

Salt is necessary for our nerve response and immunity system. But too much of it may call for our untimely death. Try to avoid having too much salt in your body.

Originally published at https://www.techolifestyle.com on February 27, 2022.