Low Sodium Diets for Heart Health: Why Your Doctor and Dietician is Missing the Mark
If you are being treated for high blood pressure, I’m sure you’ve been told to watch your sodium intake. The traditional medical theory is that since you consume too much sodium, your body is so defective that it doesn’t know what to do with it, so it holds onto the sodium. And if you’re holding onto too much sodium, you will then unfortunately hold onto fluid. And if you are holding onto fluid, this makes your heart work harder, thus raising blood pressure. And if you don’t get that lowered, you’re going to die…like yesterday.
This all sounds good and logical…except that it isn’t. Well not exactly. Yes, sodium retention will create fluid retention which
can create blood pressure elevation. But your body has too many checks and balances to just let sodium hang around from dietary intake.
The part that contradicts the notion that you need a low sodium diet is that your body never does stupid stuff. If your body is holding onto sodium to raise blood pressure, then there’s a very important reason. And that reason is because you are attempting to escape something that is potentially or perceived as dangerous (whether you are aware of it or not).
Sodium is a major player in the communication signals from the adrenals to the kidneys. If you’re in danger, those signals will create the retention of sodium so that there’s an end game expression of an increase in blood pressure. If you cannot get your blood pressure elevated to pump blood filled with all the nutrients and hormones necessary to engage muscle and nervous system activity to escape the danger, you’re done…like yesterday.
The general population experiences daily dangers from sitting too much, adverse childhood experiences that are unresolved, the Standard America Diet (not just salt intake), and staying employed at a job that is hated to earn money to impress people that aren’t liked, to buy stuff that isn’t even wanted. Just because you don’t have an immediate deadline doesn’t mean you aren’t stressed.
Best Seth Godin Advice Ever.
I just read a great blog post from one of my most favorite authors on the planet, Seth Godin. It was only 2 sentences long. It goes something like this:
“Don’t measure anything unless the data helps you make a better decision or change your actions. If you’re not prepared to change your diet or workouts, don’t get on the scale.” – Seth Godin.
Mr. Godin is in the mar
keting world but he just nailed one of the biggest reasons why our healthcare system fails to create health. We have become a nation that is focused on our numbers. Most people know their total cholesterol, blood pressure, their weight, and maybe even their blood sugar levels.
The problem is that with all the emphasis on the numbers, only 1 solution has been offered…a drug to control that number. We have been led to believe that the only reasonable and successful manner to manage those numbers is through chemistry not innate to the body.