Discover the Causes of High Blood Pressure & Salt
Salt in your diet is essential, but excess of it can be damaging to your body. Excess intake of salt has been associated with increased blood pressure. Salt has sodium that increases the risk of high blood pressure; an elevated BP restricts the flow of blood to your heart, increasing the risk of heart disease. Hypertension is quite common and affects a large number of adults – you can reduce the hypertension risk by limiting your sodium intake. What is the connection between salt and high blood pressure?
How Does Salt Causes High Blood Pressure?
Your body has a unique blood filtration system in the form of kidneys. These organs control what remains in your blood and what gets expelled out of the body through urine.
The blood collects different impurities from all over the body – some of these impurities come from your foods and drinks. Salt is one element that kidneys remove from the body; however, they remove only the excess amount of salt and have limitations on how much salt or any other impurities they can expel from the body.
If the intake of any essential element like salt increases in the body, the kidneys will remove the excess salt. To do so, kidneys attract more water to increase the blood volume, which helps clean the blood. Unfortunately, it leads to increased blood pressure.
Your arteries cannot handle this excess pressure. They can handle the normal level of water in the blood, but more water puts pressure on the blood vessels, causing the blood pressure to increase. The increased BP, in turn, affects kidney functions, creating a cycle that proves damaging to your health.
Does Salt Have an Immediate Effect on Blood Pressure?
Table salt made of sodium chloride has the property to increase blood pressure when taken in an excess amount, and it dissolves quickly and easily in most liquid contents. Your body absorbs this mineral through the small intestine.
The amount of salt your body can absorb and put into the bloodstream will depend on many factors. It depends on the type and amount of food you have eaten and how fast your stomach removes the waste into the colon. By this time, the salt has fulfilled its fluid-balancing metabolic role.
You will see an increase in your blood pressure after this process if the salt intake is in excess. Salt will affect your blood pressure as soon as it enters your bloodstream – this is the time when other organs have to try their best to balance this mineral content in your body fluid. If the salt content exceeds the limit your body can handle, your blood vessels come under pressure, increasing the blood pressure.
Kidneys receive the signal to remove excess sodium, but their blood-cleaning efficiency depends on many factors. A healthy body can perform this cleaning function well, but someone suffering from certain diseases and health issues will face problems.
Table Salt and High Blood Pressure
Table salt is a major culprit when it comes to high blood pressure and kidney diseases. It is the most preferred salt for use in foods. This salt is usually fortified with iodine to prevent thyroid disease. Most processed foods contain a high amount of table salt, and for this reason, those with high blood pressure are advised to cut the intake of processed and packaged foods containing salt.
Most individuals are advised to consume less than 1500 mg salt a day and not exceed the 2300 mg a day limit. Those who have HBP or are at risk of it should stick with the 1500 mg a day recommendation.
Which Salt Is Bad for Blood Pressure?
There are different types of salts used in foods. Each salt has sodium and chloride in a different ratio. One of the reasons for high blood pressure is the excess intake of sodium. It is better to know the amount of sodium in a particular salt so you can consume that salt according to your health and dietary preferences.
The iodized table salt contains about 2300 mg of sodium. The kosher salt has 1920 mg, and its fine variant contains 1120 mg. The fine sea salt contains 2120 mg, and the coarse sea salt contains 1560 mg of sodium. The sodium content is 2200 mg in Himalayan pink salt. Black salt can contain 1150-2200 mg sodium, depending on the source of the salt. Once you have received a recommendation from your doctor about the amount of salt you should consume in a day, you can choose a particular salt based on its sodium intake.
Increased salt intake and hypertension are closely associated, so reduce your salt intake if you have elevated BP or are at risk of developing this condition. Most dishes do not require as much salt as used, so you can reduce its amount in most dishes. You do not have any control over the salt amount used in commercially available processed foods, so the best option there is to reduce your intake of processed foods. Visit Dr. Storch online to get personalized guidelines that will help you control and manage your HBP.
