Does Salt Cause High Blood Pressure?

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 antiinflammatory
effects of inhaled salt provide relief from respiratory
symptoms (c).

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.

Where to purchase real, unrefined liquid salt go to:

http://www.phmiracleliving.com/phlavor.htm
http://www.phmiracleliving.com/pHourSalts.htm

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 bicarbaonate 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.

For more information on the healthful benefits
of real mineral sea salt go to:

http://www.phmiracleliving.com/phlavor.htm
http://www.phmiracleliving.com/pHourSalts.htm

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.

http://www.phmiracleliving.com/phlavor.htm
http://www.phmiracleliving.com/pHourSalts.htm