Is sodium bad for your health?

Here’s another item from the “(almost) everything we’ve been taught about diet is wrong” department.

Experts say we should limit sodium intake to 2.3g per day to prevent high blood pressure.

Some people do have sodium-sensitive hypertension, and for them it makes sense to limit salt.

But they are a distinct minority.

This graph tells why:

I took this screen shot from the video below, which I’ve cued to start where Dr. Stephen Phinney is explaining this study.

But before you watch it, let me spell it out for you.

It’s from a study published in 2014 in the New England Journal of Medicine of nearly 102,000 people in 17 countries. You can download the paper to read it for yourself.

The chart shows risk of death or a major cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke as it relates to the amount of sodium excreted in the urine.

As Dr. Phinney describes it, the amount of sodium you pee first thing in the morning is well correlated to the amount of your daily sodium intake.

The 1.00 level in the middle of the y-axis shows baseline risk of death, and as you can see it’s a U-shaped curve. Sodium intake of about 5g per day is associated with the lowest risk. Two key points:

  1. If you have a higher sodium intake (right of the middle red arrow), your risk is higher.
  2. If you have a lower sodium intake (left of that arrow), your risk also is higher.

We’ve all heard about the danger of too much sodium.

I’ll bet you didn’t know the risk of death or major cardiovascular event from having too little sodium (#2) is even worse.

Or that the true “sweet spot” for lowest mortality and cardiovascular event risk is about twice as high as the current dietary guidelines.

Amirite?

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Check out My Health Journey for the full story of our health improvements, and my #BodyBabySteps for an approach to how I would do it if I were starting today, based on what I’ve learned.

Get a Blood Pressure Monitor

In addition to a Bluetooth scale, another great investment is a home blood pressure monitor.

You may even be able to get one now at the end of the year, essentially with no out-of-pocket cost!

I’ll tell you how I did it after I tell you about my monitor and why I bought it.

I got the QardioArm home blood pressure in late June after learning more about how high blood pressure can provide chronic stress to blood vessels, which can open the door to slight areas of damage which can become the place where plaques start to form.

It was only $99 plus tax, so it seemed like good value, and I’ve been using it regularly to track my blood pressure.

Here’s my reading from last night, which it categorizes in the Normal range, just above Optimal:

We’ve all had our blood pressure measured at our medical appointments, and I often wonder at their usefulness.

I have had readings in the 140/90 range previously (especially when I was 60 pounds heavier), and I’ve never had anyone suggest that I might have hypertension.

It’s true that sometimes just being in a doctor’s office can raise one’s blood pressure (they call it “white coat hypertension”), and we all have fluctuations. One high reading shouldn’t necessarily send off warning flares.

But if you’re not measuring regularly, how do you know whether it’s “one high reading” or not?

That’s why I think a home blood pressure monitor is a great purchase. Because it’s connected to my iPhone, I can gather and track readings over time, and view them as either monthly or weekly averages. Here’s my chart:

Weekly and Monthly charts of average systolic and diastolic blood pressure are available.

I have at least 10-15 readings per month, and the general trend has been in a good direction.

Here’s why mine was essentially free: As I was going through my medical paperwork last month and reviewing my health care flexible spending account (FSA) program and remaining balance, I saw that home blood pressure monitoring devices are eligible for reimbursement.

I downloaded my receipt and filed online with my administrator, and got full reimbursement. I had already paid for it out-of-pocket, so it was a nice surprise that the money I had set aside in my FSA could reimburse me.

I think the $100 or so would be a good investment for anyone, particularly those of us who are old enough to remember the Carter Administration.

But if you have some FSA money you have to use (or lose) before the end of the year, it’s a total no-brainer.

If you think your friends might find this post helpful, I hope you’ll share by email or on your social networks using the buttons below.

To get these updates on a regular basis you can subscribe by email, or follow me on FacebookTwitter and LinkedIn, where I’ll also be posting links.

Check out My Health Journey and my #BodyBabySteps.