Both sea salt and rock salt were well known to the ancient Greeks who
noted that eating salty food affected basic body functions such as
digestion and excretion (urine and stools). This led to salt being used
medically. The healing methods of Hippocrates (460 BC) especially made
frequent use of salt. Salt-based remedies were thought to have
expectorant powers. A mixture of water and salt was employed as an
emetic.
Drinking
a mixture of two-thirds cow's milk and one-third salt-water, in the
mornings, on an empty stomach was recommended as a cure for diseases of
the spleen. A mixture of salt and honey was applied topically to clean
bad ulcers and salt-water was used externally against skin diseases and
freckles.
Hippocrates also mentions inhalation of steam from
salt-water. We know today that the anti-inflammatory effects of inhaled
salt provide relief from respiratory symptoms.
Thus, 2000 years
ago, Greek medicine had already discovered topical use of salt for skin
lesions, drinking salty or mineralized waters for digestive troubles and
inhaling salt for respiratory diseases!
The doctor and alchemist
Paracelsus (1493-1541 A.D.) introduced an entirely new medical concept.
He believed that external factors create disease and conceived a
chemically oriented medical system which contrasted with the prevalent
herbal medicine. Only salted food could be digested properly: 'The human
being must have salt, he cannot be without salt. Where there is no
salt, nothing will remain, but everything will tend to rot.'
He
recommended salt water for the treatment of wounds and for use against
intestinal worms. A hip-bath in salt water was a superb remedy for skin
diseases and itching: 'This brine - he said - is better than all the
health spas arising out of nature.' He described the diuretic effect of
salt consumption and prescribed salt preparations of different strengths
that were used for instance against constipation.
'In recent
years there has been much publicity about the need to reduce salt
consumption in societies where salt is added to many processed foods
(Denton 1984, 584-7).
It has tended to be forgotten that some salt
intake is absolutely necessary; that people need salt, sodium chloride,
to survive: The chemical requirements of the human body demand that the
salt concentration in the blood be kept constant. If the body does not
get enough salt, a hormonal mechanism compensates by reducing the
excretion of salt in the urine and sweat. But it cannot reduce this
output to zero.
On a completely salt-free diet the body steadily
loses small amounts of salt via the kidneys and sweat glands. It then
attempts to adjust this by accelerating its secretion of water, so that
the blood's salt concentration can be maintained at the vital level. The
result is a gradual desiccation of the body and finally death.' Roy
Moxham
An eight-year study of a New York City hypertensive
population stratified for sodium intake levels found those on low-salt
diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as those on
normal-sodium diets -the exact opposite of what the 'salt hypothesis'
would have predicted. (1995)
Dr. Jeffrey R. Cutler documented no health outcomes benefits of lower-sodium diets. Salt Institute
A
past president of the American Heart Association, Dr. Suzanne Oparil of
the University of Alabama-Birmingham, said her personal view is that
the government may have been too quick to recommend that everyone cut
back. 'Salt restriction as a solitary recommendation for the population
for the prevention or the treatment of hypertension.
An abundance
of the ingredients in unrefined real salt are as synonymous with life
today as they were a billion years ago before single cells appeared
here. Lack of them is synonymous with birth defects, organ failure,
decay, diseases, premature aging and death at a young age.
The
problem with salt is not the salt itself but the condition of the salt
we eat - refined! Major producing companies dry their salt in huge kilns
with temperatures reaching 1200 degrees F, changing he salt's chemical
structure, which in turn adversely affects the human body.
The
facts are that in the heating process of salt, the element sodium
chloride goes off into the air as a gas. What remains is sodium
hydroxate which is irritating to the system and does not satisfy the
body's hunger and need for sodium chloride. Sodium and chloride are two
of the 12 daily essential minerals.
In countries which do not
alter their salt supply, heart disease and arthritis are so rare that
many doctors have never seen a case. Their salt is dried from the ocean
by the sun. Many people believe that salt is harmful to the human body.
The
truth is we cannot live without sodium or chloride-salt. From salt the
body makes sodium bicarbonate which is one of the essential compounds
for alkalizing the food we eat. Also, from salt the body makes iron for
producing the hemoglobin of the red blood cell.
Cl + O Mn + H Fe or
chloride + Oxygen = Manganese + Hydrogen = Iron.
There
is not enough natural salt in our foods, so we must supplement our
diet. When salt is withheld, weakness and sickness follow.
Try
this experiment: Mix a spoonful of salt in a glass of water and let it
stand overnight. If the salt collects on the bottom of the glass, it has
been processed.
NATURAL SALT DISSOLVES! Salt that will not
dissolve in water cannot dissolve in your body. Any foreign substance
that collects in the body organs and tissues will eventually result in
malfunctioning of essential body processes: heart disease, arthritis,
hardening of the body tissues and arteries, calcium deposits in the
joints, etc. Natural organic salt (saline) will not cause calcification
in your body. Real sea salt can dissolve damaging calcium deposits in
the body.
Science and medicine have tried to define the precise
roles of salt in the healthy and diseased human organism. Blood, sweat,
and tears all contain salt, and both the skin and the eyes are protected
from metabolic acids from the effects of salt. When salt is added to a
liquid, particles with opposite charges are formed: a positively charged
sodium ion and a negatively charged chloride ion.
This is the
basis of osmosis which regulates fluid pressure within living cells and
protects the body against excessive water loss (as in diarrhea or on
heavy sweating).
Sodium and chloride ions, as well as potassium
ions, create a measurable difference in potential across cell membranes.
This ensures that the fluid inside living cells remains separate from
that outside. Thus, although the human body consists mainly of water,
our 'inner ocean' does not flow away or evaporate. Sodium ions create a
high pressure of liquid in the kidneys and thus regulate their metabolic
function.
Water is extracted through the renal drainage system.
The body thus loses a minimal amount of essential alkaline water. Out of
1500 liters of blood which pass daily through the kidneys, only about
1.5 liters of liquid leave the body as urine.
Salt is 'fuel' for
nerves. Streams of positively and negatively charged ions send impulses
to nerve fibers. A muscle cell will only contract if an impulse reaches
it. Nerve impulses are partly propelled by co-ordinated changes in
charged particles.
Fish from the ocean will die quickly if placed
in a solution of refined salt and water. The sodium chloride, in its
form as it comes from the refinery, is actually poisonous to them.
Bottom line, is that yes it can be harmful to consume too much refined
salt, but you cannot consume too much natural unrefined liquid real
salt.
In conclusion the question, "does salt cause high blood pressure?" The
answer is absolutely NOT! High blood pressure is caused by dietary and
metabolic acids that are not being properly eliminated through
urination, defecation, perspiration and respiration. The truth is, you
do not get high blood pressure you do high blood pressure with your
lifestyle and dietary choices. Sodium chloride is the key to reducing
and normalizing blood pressure and maintaining healthy pulse rate below
70 beats a minute.
