He is embarrassed to admit this, but the skeptical cardiologist has no idea how much salt he consumes.
I have never stressed to my patients that they engage in obsessive assessment of their salt consumption. The data that everyone needs to limit salt consumption to , say 1.5 grams/ day, as the AHA recommends are not compelling. If asked, my typical response is to recommend not adding additional table salt from the salt shaker and to avoid processed and fast foods (which apparently accounts for 75% of salt consumed in the US).
I definitely have some patients with hypertension and some with heart failure in whom watching for excessive salt consumption is important. One of my patients with fairly well controlled hypertension called me last week because he was recording blood pressures of 210/120. Before I could add another blood pressure agent he had decided to stop adding the salt to the tomatoes he was eating and over a period of a week the blood pressure came back to normal values. Manyl of my severe heart failure patients will report weight gain due to ankle swelling after a particularly salty meal.
On the other hand, I have many patients who are symptomatic from low blood pressure. These patients have frequent episodes of dizziness and have been following the recommended low salt diet thinking that this was enhancing their health. When I get them to liberalize salt intake, blood pressures and their symptoms go away.
Recent papers on salt consumption suggest that either too much or too little salt is bad for you and consequently the public must be totally confused on what they should be doing.
Since I have high blood pressure which seems to randomly fluctuate I’ve decided to try to measure exactly how much salt I consume daily. Maybe I am consuming more than 5 grams daily (I think that is too much).
This is not going to be an easy task. If i eat out during this time I’m not sure how I will have any clue what amount of salt is in the meal. If I decided to fry a couple of eggs this morning , I will shake some salt on them from the salt cellar. Is it possible to measure this amount? If I put some cheese on the eggs, will I need to precisely measure the amount of cheese? Looks like there are some free iPhone apps I can utilize to assist me in the process.
To my readers and patients, please join me in this exciting and informative adventure. Over the next week, try to track your daily salt consumption and report the numbers to me. Or do it for one day. The Great Salt Measurement Challenge is On!
On the Power of Cauls, Dickens’s Doctors, and Placebos
In the first chapter (I AM BORN) of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, the protagonist notes that “I was born with a caul, which was advertised
2 thoughts on “Are You Consuming Too Much or Too Little Salt?”
I use an app called MyFitnessPal.com to track everything from salt to fat to calories etc. I suppose it is as accurate as anything. See what you think.
A lot of my patients use MyFitnessPal and are happy with it. It seems to aid them in understanding how much they are consuming and how much they are being active. I’m going to download the app and check it out!