Salt, Blood Pressure, and Libido: Highlights from the book The Salt Fix

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Guided_by_Voices

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I just finished reading the book The Salt Fix, and it addresses many topics which have come up in various threads here so I am posting some highlights, along with a few other items not covered in the book. The book has been out about ten years and I have heard many podcasts with the author, but the book covers many interesting details I don’t remember from any of the podcasts. So for those who like to read, I strongly recommend it, not only because of the useful information it contains, but because it is an ongoing example of how bad information is perpetuated to this day despite many lines of evidence and logic strongly suggesting that minimizing salt/sodium is terrible advice.



To summarize the book’s message in one sentence, the body can easily deal with too much salt in all but very rare extremes, however too little salt is surprisingly easy to achieve (especially for people who sweat a lot as most of us here between sauna and activity are likely doing, or who take drugs that have the side-effect of lowering sodium) and creates many non-intuitive forms of damage that the body cannot overcome without salt. (I am using salt and sodium interchangeably here, although technically sodium is a subset of salt.) A few highlights from the book include:

  • Low Salt intake can lower libido and fertility, so those looking for things to raise either should err on the higher side of salt intake. This seems to be a very under-publicized issue given all the threads here and elsewhere looking for libido-boosting methods.
  • Low potassium intake is far more likely to cause high blood pressure than high salt, and potassium should be one of the first things to look at to optimize blood pressure
  • Low salt will raise heart rate and blood viscosity (both of which are harmful) to a degree that outweighs any benefit from a minor lowering of blood pressure, if it were to occur.
  • Low salt can actually raise blood pressure in some cases and the negative of low salt extends to many body systems that have nothing to do with blood pressure
  • There are commonly used drugs that can lower the amount of sodium in the body which would make avoiding salt even more dangerous.
The book is extensively referenced, and while I don’t have the knowledge to personally validate everything in it, the author cites numerous examples that back up the logic of his arguments, such as non-industrialized tribes with very low salt intake who also have very low fertility, to cite just one example. My only quibble with the book is that the author spends a lot of time making the case that sugar is causing much of the harm that salt has been blamed for, however more recently it has become clearer that excess intake of omega-6 fats is likely just as big a factor as sugar, however that doesn’t change the basic message of the book.

While not mentioned in the book, a couple of items to be aware of:

  • People with large upper arms may often need a larger-than-standard cuff to get an accurate reading, and the standard cuffs may tend to read too high.
  • Blood pressure readings can vary a lot so numerous readings under varying circumstances are necessary to start to get an accurate picture
  • Blood pressure can tend to be higher in cold conditions
  • If you are someone who doesn’t sweat very much in situations where you should like a sauna or working outdoors in the heat, this can be a sign that your body is low on something (like Iodine) that normally would be lost in sweat but which your body is trying to conserve. Sweat is also a key part of the body’s detox system and not something that you want to minimize.
Personally, since I raised my salt intake (especially in my pre-workout concoction) I have seen no rise in my blood pressure and if anything it has dropped a bit although that could be just random variation.
 
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Salt should be restricted only in sensitive to it individuals with high blood pressure. That is easily checked experimentally in each particular case.

For the vast majority of the population the fear mongering on salt is just one of the many medical BS based on observational "studies" and correlation i.e. medical pseudo-science.

I have a low blood pressure 100/60 (probably due to neurologic damage) and was never able to raise it even the slightest bit to 120/80 with the suggested high water and 12g salt/day.

Regarding sugar, I personally agree with the author. Diabetics have much higher chances of heart attack without having high cholesterol, all due to the higher blood glucose in poorly controlled diabetes.
 



Those darn "observational studies".
 
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Those darn "observational studies".
Without reading these in detail...sometimes correlation really isn't causation, since

-higher sodium in the absence of appropriate potassium could cause issues, as is described in the book, however the solution is usually to increase potassium
- high sodium intake is almost certainly a marker for high intake of processed food and all the badness that comes with it,
- as mentioned above, the body can easily (assuming healthy kidneys) eliminate "excess" sodium,
- and most importantly, if salt was an issue, the (non-industrialized) cultures that consume high amounts but are otherwise healthy should see issues, but they don't.

This is all covered in much greater detail in the book. Additionally, there is clearly massive confirmation bias in salt studies, similar to the breakfast is good for you and meat is bad for you biases.

As a side note, FMD was a big point of contention in the early days of keto and my takeaway at the time is that it is nowhere near as straightforward as many make it out to be. Peter at Hyperlipid did an analysis, as did others and the bottom line from him and others, is that without other clear forms of evidence to confirm harm, it's not very reliable. I'll happily trade some short term vascular stress in order to maintain a margin of safety over a low sodium state.
 
I just finished reading the book The Salt Fix, and it addresses many topics which have come up in various threads here so I am posting some highlights, along with a few other items not covered in the book. The book has been out about ten years and I have heard many podcasts with the author, but the book covers many interesting details I don’t remember from any of the podcasts. So for those who like to read, I strongly recommend it, not only because of the useful information it contains, but because it is an ongoing example of how bad information is perpetuated to this day despite many lines of evidence and logic strongly suggesting that minimizing salt/sodium is terrible advice.



To summarize the book’s message in one sentence, the body can easily deal with too much salt in all but very rare extremes, however too little salt is surprisingly easy to achieve (especially for people who sweat a lot as most of us here between sauna and activity are likely doing, or who take drugs that have the side-effect of lowering sodium) and creates many non-intuitive forms of damage that the body cannot overcome without salt. (I am using salt and sodium interchangeably here, although technically sodium is a subset of salt.) A few highlights from the book include:

  • Low Salt intake can lower libido and fertility, so those looking for things to raise either should err on the higher side of salt intake. This seems to be a very under-publicized issue given all the threads here and elsewhere looking for libido-boosting methods.
  • Low potassium intake is far more likely to cause high blood pressure than high salt, and potassium should be one of the first things to look at to optimize blood pressure
  • Low salt will raise heart rate and blood viscosity (both of which are harmful) to a degree that outweighs any benefit from a minor lowering of blood pressure, if it were to occur.
  • Low salt can actually raise blood pressure in some cases and the negative of low salt extends to many body systems that have nothing to do with blood pressure
  • There are commonly used drugs that can lower the amount of sodium in the body which would make avoiding salt even more dangerous.
The book is extensively referenced, and while I don’t have the knowledge to personally validate everything in it, the author cites numerous examples that back up the logic of his arguments, such as non-industrialized tribes with very low salt intake who also have very low fertility, to cite just one example. My only quibble with the book is that the author spends a lot of time making the case that sugar is causing much of the harm that salt has been blamed for, however more recently it has become clearer that excess intake of omega-6 fats is likely just as big a factor as sugar, however that doesn’t change the basic message of the book.

While not mentioned in the book, a couple of items to be aware of:

  • People with large upper arms may often need a larger-than-standard cuff to get an accurate reading, and the standard cuffs may tend to read too high.
  • Blood pressure readings can vary a lot so numerous readings under varying circumstances are necessary to start to get an accurate picture
  • Blood pressure can tend to be higher in cold conditions
  • If you are someone who doesn’t sweat very much in situations where you should like a sauna or working outdoors in the heat, this can be a sign that your body is low on something (like Iodine) that normally would be lost in sweat but which your body is trying to conserve. Sweat is also a key part of the body’s detox system and not something that you want to minimize.
Personally, since I raised my salt intake (especially in my pre-workout concoction) I have seen no rise in my blood pressure and if anything it has dropped a bit although that could be just random variation.
Idk if it’s random. Ever since I started putting Celtic sea salt in my sparkling water everyday, along with liwuid magnesium chloride (which is known to relax blood vessel lining) I have not only seen my blood pressure be consistently perfect, but I’ve also seen my hct consistently stay around the 49-51 range, while before it hovered closer to 53-54. And before when my HCT was up, I was taking much less androgens. There definitely seems to be something to this

I’ve followed Dr brownsteins work for years now, mostly in regards to iodine, but he also wrote a similar book to the one ur referring to, called “salt your way to health”

But I think they’re both pretty spot on as far as low potassium being more of an issue than high sodium, when it comes to blood pressure and fluid regulation. Dr brownstein does feel like the type of salt makes a huge difference, however, which I currently agree with. He encourages people to use either Celtic sea salt, or redmonds real salt. Here’s a really quick clip of him explaining why he feels these salts are better, and why table salt can possibly cause harm

oh and I also use salt preworkout. I make a drink with some Celtic sea salt and some organic coconut water, and just sip that throughout my workout


(12:30 in he talks about unrefined salt briefly)

(here’s on where he talks about salt and asthma real quick. Go to 1:28:40)


(this is another really good overall interview with a guy that’s an expert on salt. Highly recommend)
 
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I'd love to see folks' sodium and potassium daily intakes over a week. Set up a cronometer account and log your food/drinks for a week. Will be fun. Who's up for it?
 
Thanks for the very interesting thread.

My sodium has been coming back slightly low since I started taking low-dose amiloride (a potassium-sparing diuretic). I don't restrict sodium and also use Celtic salt.
 
Does the Salt Fix discuss the effects of salt on autoimmune diseases? What I've seen looks bad:



 
I've noticed my wellbeing is much better with a huge bump in potassium. Dr. Berg has a ton of videos on it. Not saying he is the messiah of all health but I do like his videos on this topic. I drink low sodium V8 because it provides almost a gram of pottasium in just one cup. My muscles are fuller, i look leaner, and my mind is sharper when I get plenty of the main electrolytes, sodium, potassium, and magnesium.

 
Does the Salt Fix discuss the effects of salt on autoimmune diseases? What I've seen looks bad:



How dare you. Are you not aware of the widespread sodium deficiency currently being experienced in "first" world. Get the word out...more Sodium Chloride! A little homeopathic sprinkle of trace minerals on top. Even better!

That is all I see out there right now. Malnourished and sodium deficient Barkley Marathon runners.
 
Here give your overfed and undernourished kids who eat an abundance of processed food extra sodium not less. What could possibly go wrong?


This company will even sell you the packets with 1g of sodium per packet for a nice flavored drink.

HW for tonight...go find one whole food that has a K/Na ratio less than one? What is the overwhelming trend?


Wtf?
 

Random Google table to get you started.
1692214817425.png



Nature truly has it out for us. Make sure you carry this with you everywhere!


1692214910562.png



Like garlic for the vampires. Constant vigilance. Don't let friends be sodium deficient.
 
Thanks for the very interesting thread.

My sodium has been coming back slightly low since I started taking low-dose amiloride (a potassium-sparing diuretic). I don't restrict sodium and also use Celtic salt.
He doesn't mention that specific drug but he does mention diuretics numerous times to point out that they can increase the excretion of salt and hence increase the lower limit of intake needed to stay in a safe range, so your decrease could very well be caused by the drug.
 
Does the Salt Fix discuss the effects of salt on autoimmune diseases? What I've seen looks bad:



I may do a longer post of comments on studies at some point, but the short answer is that he only touches on it indirectly (aside from a quick comment on Addison's Disease) , and what he says casts doubt on these studies in the sense that auto-immunity is way more complicated than one variable. That said, a lot of things are dis-regulated in AI which could make otherwise benign things harmful, and perhaps there is an impact, but you still would not want to be low in Salt. Salt does play an important role in normal immune functions, especially in the skin, which was one of many interesting tidbits I had no idea about before I read the book.

One thing that immediately jumps out from the first study is that "excess salt" and "high salt" are somewhat meaningless in vivo when the body can excrete what is views as excess, at least once it reaches the kidneys. This is in contrast to heavy metals for example, which the body has no way to directly remove. And to be clear, the author is not calling for indiscriminant mega-dosing of salt, but rather making a case that dietary guidelines encourage dangerously low intake for many people and that they are based on essentially no good evidence.
 




Summary. In summary, our ultra-long-term balance studies suggest that humans maintain water balance by endogenous rhythmical accrual and excretion of body water. Rhythmical mineralocorticoid regulation promotes Na+ retention and osmolyte-free water accrual by enhancing the water-economizing nature of the renal concentration mechanism (39, 40), resulting in increased body water. Contrariwise, rhythmical glucocorticoid release is associated with osmolyte excretion and inhibits the renal concentration mechanism in order to excrete surplus body water. This surplus had been accrued earlier, either by successful water conservation in the renal barrier, or by additional (unmeasured) water conservation in the extrarenal epithelial barriers, or, alternatively, by increasing the rate of (unmeasured) metabolic water generation. A 6-g/d increase in salt intake reduces rhythmical aldosterone and enhances rhythmical glucocorticoid action, increases endogenous osmolyte-free water accrual, and ultimately results in the excretion of surplus salt osmolytes, together with endogenously accrued surplus water. However, the accompanying relative predominance of rhythmical glucocorticoid release suggests that the maintenance of water homeostasis in states of surplus salt excretion is intimately coupled with changes in body energy expenditure in humans. Thus, salt-driven changes in energy metabolism may link high salt intake with diabetes mellitus (41–43), osteoporosis (44–48), and increased cardiovascular and neurovascular disease risk (49–54), even in the absence of any salt-sensitive blood pressure responses.


The researchers found that the kidney conserves or releases water by balancing levels of sodium, potassium, and the waste product urea. This may be what ties glucocorticoid levels to salt intake. A high salt diet increased glucocorticoid levels, causing muscle and liver to burn more energy to produce urea, which was then used in the kidney for water conservation. That also led the mice to eat more. These salt-driven changes in metabolism may thus partly explain why high salt diets have been linked to diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems that can result from the condition known as metabolic syndrome.
 
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