Sodium is a vital nutrient essential for human health as it helps maintain fluid balance, nerve impulse transmission, and muscle contraction. It is naturally found in various foods such as vegetables, dairy products, meat, and seafood. In processed foods, salt is added as a compound of sodium and chloride ions.
Although low-salt diets are often recommended to prevent chronic diseases and maintain health, restricting salt intake, especially unprocessed, natural salt, can have negative effects. Insufficient salt consumption may lead to increased cortisol levels in the blood.
Cortisol, a stress hormone, plays a crucial role in health but can cause severe issues like muscle breakdown, inflammation, and weakened immune function when consistently elevated. Therefore, it is important to regulate cortisol levels, making salt restriction potentially harmful.
Effects of Low-Sodium Diet on Cortisol Levels
Research shows that following a low-sodium diet can decrease cortisol levels in urine. Conversely, increased dietary sodium intake may raise cortisol excretion in urine, with slightly lower levels in the blood when more salt is consumed. This suggests that restricting salt intake could elevate circulating cortisol levels.
Studies indicate that a high-salt diet can lead to increased excretion of glucocorticoids, including cortisol, in urine. This implies that higher salt intake prompts the body to release more stress-related hormones, which are then excreted in larger quantities.
Another study revealed that dietary salt loading can increase urinary free cortisol excretion in healthy subjects. This change in cortisol metabolite excretion following salt loading is accompanied by a decrease in plasma cortisol concentration.
The Impact of Elevated Cortisol
While cortisol is often associated with stress, its primary role is to maintain glucose levels to prevent hypoglycemic coma and death. However, chronically elevated cortisol levels can have negative long-term effects, including muscle wasting, brain tissue damage, accelerated aging, and impaired immune function.
High cortisol levels can also lead to inflammation, breakdown of body tissues, and increased food cravings. Maintaining healthy tissues as you age becomes challenging with persistently high cortisol levels, hindering the body’s natural processes.
Ultimately, lowering cortisol levels is essential for overall health and well-being. It’s crucial to understand the implications of salt restriction on cortisol levels and adopt strategies to manage cortisol effectively.
Why Low-Salt Advice May Not Be Beneficial
Your body works to maintain optimal sodium levels regardless of intake, highlighting the importance of sodium for health and vitality. Magnesium and calcium levels help regulate sodium levels in the body, emphasizing the significance of maintaining a balanced approach to salt intake.
As your salt intake decreases, your body starts to extract sodium from your bones, as well as magnesium and calcium. James DiNicolantonio, Pharm.D., who wrote “The Salt Fix” and coauthored “Superfuel: Ketogenic Keys to Unlock the Secrets of Good Fats, Bad Fats, and Great Health” with me, explains that the increase in high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes since the early 1900s is linked to a reduction in salt intake. Low-salt diets may contribute to chronic diseases like osteoporosis.
There is a significant amount of sodium stored in the bones, suggesting that bones may act as a sodium reservoir that is tapped into during times of stress. Salt is also essential for maintaining a positive balance of magnesium and calcium in the body. If serum sodium levels drop, the body may strip sodium, magnesium, and calcium from the bones to maintain normal levels. This process can lead to negative calcium and magnesium balance, potentially causing osteoporosis.
Reducing salt intake may lower blood pressure but can negatively impact the ratio of total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein (HDL), a better predictor of heart disease risk than low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Insulin resistance can also result from salt deficiency, as the body increases insulin levels to retain salt, which is a key factor in heart disease and other chronic illnesses.
A low-sodium diet may worsen cardiovascular outcomes in individuals with cardiometabolic risk or established cardiovascular disease. While high sodium intake can be harmful, maintaining sodium intake within a physiologically appropriate range may be more beneficial than attempting to restrict sodium intake.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that individuals with a lower risk of heart problems and death consumed three to six grams of sodium per day, exceeding the recommended limits in the U.S. Higher salt intake has also been associated with longer healthy life expectancy and lower mortality rates.
The balance between sodium and potassium in the diet is crucial for overall health. Consuming more potassium than sodium is recommended, but most Americans consume more sodium than potassium. Increasing potassium intake has been linked to lower blood pressure independent of sodium intake. Foods rich in potassium include spinach, broccoli, oranges, and yogurt.
Switching from processed table salt to natural alternatives like pink Himalayan salt can help improve the sodium to potassium ratio in the diet. Natural salt contains more potassium than processed salt and may be a healthier option. Monitoring sodium and potassium intake using a food tracking app can help ensure a balanced ratio.
Individual salt needs can vary based on factors like sweating, medical conditions, and dietary preferences. DiNicolantonio suggests consuming around 3,500 mg of sodium daily, which exceeds the American Heart Association’s recommendations. Consulting with a healthcare provider or getting a blood test to assess serum sodium levels can help determine the appropriate salt intake for individual needs. Como regla general, su nivel ideal de sodio es 139, con un rango óptimo de 136 a 142. Si es mucho más bajo, probablemente necesite comer más sal natural. Si es más alto, es probable que desee restringir su ingesta de sal procesada.
También hay algunas subpoblaciones sensibles a la sal que pueden necesitar limitar su consumo de sal a 2,300 mg por día. Esto incluye a aquellos con:
– Trastornos endocrinos
– Altos niveles de aldosterona
– Síndrome de Cushing
– Cortisol elevado
– Síndrome de Liddle, una condición rara que afecta a aproximadamente 1 de cada 1 millón de individuos, haciéndolos retener demasiada sal. Si se trata con amilorida, probablemente no sea necesario restringir la ingesta de sal.