How to remove excess salt from the body

How much salt can you eat

Scientists are not entirely sure how much sodium chloride (NaCl) a person should eat in order not to harm their health. WHO recommendsGuideline: Sodium Intake for Adults and Children. / World Health Organization. limit consumption of 5 g of salt daily, the British National Health Service increasesSalt: the facts / NHS allowable rate up to 6 g.

You are unlikely to greatly exceed this dose. According to statisticsAndrew Mente, Martin O'Donnell, Sumathy Rangarajan, at al. Associations of urinary sodium excretion with cardiovascular events in individuals with and without hypertension: a pooled analysis of data from four studies / The Lancet, only 22% of the population from 49 developed countries consume more than 6 g of pure sodium (or 15 g of sodium chloride) daily - then the amount, starting from which the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and related to them sharply increases mortality. Most people eat no more than 6-8 g.

Nevertheless, even a slight excess of the norm can be harmful. The reason is that salt can build upSodium: How to tame your salt habit / Mayo Clinic in the body. By attracting moisture to itself, it increases the blood volume and, accordingly, the load on the heart, blood vessels, liver, and kidneys.

How to know if there is too much salt

There are no laboratory tests available that can measure salt content. You can get tested for sodium, but it will rather tell you about the general state of the body and the performance of various organs than about an excess of salt.

It is possible to assume that you eat a lot of salty foods mainly by indirect indications. The American resource LiveStrong, dedicated to a healthy lifestyle, interviewed4 Signs You’re Eating Too Much Salt / LiveStrong nutritionists and medical doctors. And he identified four symptoms, hinting that you have too much salt. Please note: all of them are indicative only if you are healthy and do not have chronic diseases.

• You are often thirsty.
• You have mild swelling regularly. For example, fingers or feet in the ankle area swell, and the face becomes puffy.
• Vegetables, bread, cereals, and other common foods seem tasteless to you. I want to salt them.
• Your blood pressure began to rise.

This is not a complete list. For more information on how to recognize excess salt, we wrote here.

How to remove excess salt from the body

The most obvious option seems to be this: drink plenty of water. The liquid will dilute the salt and flush it out through the kidneys. But in fact, this method is questionable.

Our body is designed so that the amount of water and sodium levels in the body are interrelated.Water and Sodium Balance / Merck Manual. In body fluids, approximately the same amount of sodium is always dissolved (and other electrolytes, but they are not very important in this case). This indicator is called osmolarity.Fluid and Electrolyte Balance / Molecular & Cell Biology.

For a person to remain healthy, osmolarity must remain in a certain, rather narrow range. Therefore, when you drink and the amount of water increases, the body begins to retain sodium by all means in order to maintain its concentration.

Thus, drinking water on purpose to get rid of excess salt is not the best solution.Does Drinking Water Flush Out Sodium in the Body? / LiveStrong. There are far more effective and scientifically proven ways.

1. Go to workout

The more energetic she is, the faster and more you sweat. This means that you will begin to lose moisture. This will push the osmolarity out of the healthy range, and to keep it within the normal range, the body will begin to get rid of sodium.

Salt is removed along with sweat, so it has a characteristic aftertaste.

2. Sit in a bath or sauna

Unless, of course, you have any disease for which such procedures are prohibited.

The scheme for getting rid of salt here is the same as in the previous case. Due to the high temperature, the body loses moisture, and after it, sodium is removed in order to maintain the electrolyte balance.

3. Stay hydrated but skip sports drinks

If you are actively sweating during exercise, you need to restore the amount of moisture in your body. At least in order to have something to sweat and with what to remove salt. In addition, if you lose too much fluid and do not regain it, there is a risk of dehydration and associated hypernatremia.Hypernatremia (High Level of Sodium in the Blood) / Merck Manual. This is the name of a dangerous condition in which the level of sodium in the blood rises sharply: the body simply does not have enough moisture to keep osmolarity in the normal range.

Therefore, keep track of how much you drink during the day. Average rateWater: How much should you drink every day? / Mayo Clinic is this:

• men should drink at least 3 liters of water a day;
• women - not less than 2.2 liters.

The necessary moisture can be obtained from various sources: compotes, fruit drinks, tea. And sports drinks. They are often recommended for people who exercise vigorously because they contain carbohydrates and electrolytes. But if right now your goal is to get rid of excess salt, it is better to refuse such drinks. Many of them, in addition to other electrolytes, addHydration: Why It’s So Important / American Academy of Family Physicians. large doses of sodium.

4. Eat foods rich in potassium

It helps eliminate sodium from the body. This is celebratedA Primer on Potassium / American Heart Association experts from the American Heart Association. And it is recommended to eat foods rich in potassium to reduce salt levels:

• bananas;
• avocado;
• potato;
• greens;
• spinach;
• mushrooms;
• peas;
• tomatoes and tomato juice;
• oranges and orange juice;
• plums, apricots and their juice;
• raisins and dates;
• skimmed or low-fat (up to 1%) milk;
• low fat yogurt;
• tuna and halibut.

5. Try a diuretic

These can be over-the-counter pills or diuretic herbal teas. According toDiuretics / Mayo Clinic American medical organization Mayo Clinic, such funds help the kidneys to quickly remove excess sodium from the body.

But never drink diuretics, even if it's just herbal tea, on an ongoing basis. Excessive use of them can leadMohanad Soliman, William Fuller, Nida Usmani, and Olalekan Akanbi. Acute Severe Hyponatremia as a Serious Health Implication of Herbal Detox Regimens / Cureus to a critical decrease in sodium and potassium levels. And this is dangerous to health.