Why doctors restrict salt intake

Salt is a good additive to our daily meals and makes our meals tasty. But in most cases we find ourselves in a situation where we have to stop or reduce its intake in our daily meals.Doctors and other healthcare providers find problems to convince their patients to reduce dietary salt intake. Sometimes salt puts a patient’s health in danger, especially those suffering from chronic illnesses that requires restriction of sodium intake.People most affected here are those carrying chronic heart conditions or high blood pressure that requires salt intake restriction so as to protect their heart.Taking too much salty foodstuffs brings changes to the body system that prompt the heart to work harder than normal. Doctors know that high sodium intake causes an excess strain on the heart and it’s very dangerous as it increases the heart workload.Sodium inside our body is responsible for fluid and electrolyte balance and when a person takes in an excess amount of it, he must also match it with adequate fluid and preferably a neutral fluid like water. Normally an excess quantity of salt sends thirst signals to the brain, encouraging you to take in fluids commensurate to the body needs. Taking too much salty foodstuffs causes heart disease through water retention mechanisms.High blood pressureThe primary way that salt affects the cardiovascular system is by causing high blood pressure, a condition known as hypertension. Normally, blood pressure is a reflection of the pressure that blood exerts on the walls of the arteries. Now when you take in a large amount of salty foods, water retention adds to the pressure on the arterial walls, thereby increasing blood pressure. Doctors normally prescribe sodium lowering medications in treatment of hypertension to limit the possibility of water retention in the body. Also most commonly prescribed medications are potassium sparing medications because they counteract sodium ion movements in our body system. This is seen in chronic heart patients who present with symptoms of body swelling or edema on their body surface and extremities.Also, when blood pressure is increased, there is increase of blood flow through the arteries and an abnormal increase results in turbulent blood flow. This kind of flow is dangerous and traumatic to smooth inner lining of the arterial wall. Too much pressure inside the wall can inflict an inner arterial wall injury that leads to permanent damage and possibly build up of the clot or plaque at the inner wall of the artery. This leads to a condition known as atherosclerosis.When there is this buildup of the plaque, blood flow is restricted or inhibited to reach some inner cells or the epithelial cells. This means oxygen supply to these cells is minimized.Inflammatory responseThe end result for this is that an injury to the arterial wall causes the inner cells of the artery or the epithelial cells not to function very well leading to an inflammatory response.The inflammatory process caused by the injury signals white blood cells to come at the scene for reparation of the damage. To control the situation at the injured part, platelets respond by stimulating collagen that form a clot or plaque in the wall. The result is a hard, plaque-like occlusion that slows down blood flow through the artery. Therefore, atherosclethrosis is one of the complications of an increased blood pressure flow into the vessels that in turn could be insulted by high salt intake in our meals.Sometimes the heart cannot pump the amount of blood that needs to be pumped; this condition is known as congestive heart failure. This condition may be caused by hypertension, atherosclerosis or a past heart attack. It is termed congestive heart failure because of the swelling that occurs in the heart or our body tissues. Blood flow returning to the heart is backed up because the heart cannot keep up with the return and pressure of blood flow. Water retention from a high salt diet may make this condition even worse. However, there are people who crave for salt as a result of trace mineral deficiency. Eating salty foods temporarily relieves cravings of this type, but they come back when the body fails to absorb any trace minerals from the salty foods that you eat.Salt cravings can also be the result of mild dehydration. This is because when you sweat, you lose salt from the body. People who crave for salt after the exercise or after sweating on a hot day, may probably have lost too many body minerals and in this case need to take mineral rich beverages to replace the lost minerals through sweat and other body physiological mechanisms.On another hand salt craving can be a symptom of a serious medical condition and commonly associated with renal disorders such as the Addison’s disease and adrenal cortex disease. It is also common with hypoparathyroidism. Dizziness, excessive thirst and dry mouth People who crave for salt should be careful as overconsumption of salty foods leads to diverse health problems. While our body needs a small amount of salt to function properly, eating too much salt can lead to dizziness, excessive thirst and dry mouth. Eating too much salt for a long period of time, could lead to high blood pressure and develop a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.