- In the beginning there was salt. Salt! Isn't it amazing
how something as innocuous as it is ubiquitous could be so critical to
life. How does that work?
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- As the story is told, some single digit multiple of a
billion years ago, life quickened in the tormented bosom of aggravated
and electrified seas. The seas in question are of course water, but within
that water are the dissolved salts of many different types as they are
found in the soils containing them. These various salts, and sodium chloride
too, are washed down to our aforementioned seas via falls, streams, and
rivers fed by the period's unending torrential rains.
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- Primitive mono-cellular Life only finds its initial originating
spark in the salts of those seas, and building on each successful generation
uses the briny water as conduit for both waste elimination and nutritional
system needs. One cell evolves to a collection of cells, then a corporation
of cells, then a symphony of cells able to move out of the salty water
and onto dry land.
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- The nurturing salty sea had to be brought along with
them, of course. It is no wonder, reader, why blood must so closely resemble
the sea in which it evolved.
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- Back to present day, a recent NY Times article found
that a reduction in salt consumption would save numerous lives due to a
reduction in Blood Pressure (BP). This is a classic example of the true
statement based on a false premise used to promote an unhealthy agenda.
The agenda referred to is that a "No Salt" diet is the best course
for BP reduction.
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- Salt increases BP. Well... not really. You see, when
your BP goes up after excessive salt consumption the increase is loosely
analogous to the way salt increases your weight...
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- Salt puts water weight on the scale but it doesn't really
put the weight on YOU! If you reduce your salt intake and jog around the
block a few times, your weight and likely your BP will return to their
original lower level.
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- "Yeah Alan, but so what?" This still doesn't
mean you should eat large amounts of table salt, does it? Shouldn't you
just, pretty much, get salt completely out of your life?
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- Well, No, actually - you should still consume a small
but adequate amount of salt... just not "Toxic, Aluminum/Iodine-laced,
Table-salt," like that spilling off the line-art umbrellas of Little
Girls affixed to the outsides of salt containers. "When it rains,
it pours... thank you, Aluminum"?
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- Here are just a few considerations regarding Table-salt,
Sea-salt and Salt in general... also at the end of the piece are my favorite
BP lowering supplements. Let's begin.
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- 1.. Frankly, this whole "Low salt - No salt"
craziness likely causes more death and illness than it prevents. See,
as you get older, the tendency is to produce LESS "HCl with pepsin"
(stomach-acid).
- Eliminating the salt is removing the nutrient required
to provide the chloride necessary for the formation of HCl in the first
place!
- At best, salt elimination just exacerbates this undesirable
low stomach-acid situation found in many folks even in the springs of their
winters.
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- This leads to not having the copious stomach acid essential
for proper digestion and especially, then, the absorption of mineral salts
& trace mineral salts - an astonishing array of different salt nutrients!
Missing these different salts can result in heart disease & YES, ironically
-astonishingly- high blood pressure...
- This is forgetting the exacerbation of virtually any
other disease out there you can name.
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- Most older persons have too little stomach acid, actually
- they only think they have too much acid because they have "heart
burn" and "indigestion." That's what they are told by the
medical community... though, guess what folks? Too little or too much
acid both have the SAME symptoms!
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- In reality most heart burn in old folks is caused by
"not enough" acid which means the improper alkaline stomach causes
the LES, that containing sphincter at the top of the stomach, to relax
and open slightly! This allows the weak stomach acid to splash up on to
the esophagus. See, you don't have enough acid for good digestion or keeping
the LES closed, but you do have enough to cause pain when it splashes up
and hits the unprotected and sensitive esophagus!
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- Additionally, remember, a cascade of biological inefficiencies
caused by a lack of HCl in the diets of the elderly can lead to joint pain
or some other auto-immune response when the highly UN-digestible Gluten
Protein is not properly "softened-up" by appropriately strong
stomach acid... which is a damn good reason, by the way, to avoid wheat,
barley & rye. Gluten-Protein is CRAP.
- Homo-Erectus never baked a loaf of bread. I digress.
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- 2.. Generally, the problem isn't too much salt ...it
is TOO LITTLE Potassium. Remember, the daily amount of Potassium needed
has recently increased from about 2000mg, up to 4700mg! A person who runs
& sweats copiously, thus losing potassium, should consume adequate
salt & take extra potassium however due to an antiquated law, supplemental
potassium can only come in 99mg increments. So if you need 4700mg...
the 99mg in your typical slack-jaw Multi is silly and pointless.
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- WARNING - You can't just take 4700mg of Potassium because
when added to the Potassium in your food it could be too much, thus toxic.
A good safe compromise is about 900mg divided into 3 doses of 300mg with
food...this is the equivalent to 3 small bananas.
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- 3.. Salt that ain't "salty" because it is in
various forms of sodium, etc. and when used as preservatives in processed
foods, are not a good natural source of same. Theobvious answer is to
avoid all processed food... from where most of the harmful and BP-raising
sodium actually comes!
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- 4.. Sun-Dried Sea-Salt or Pink Himalayan Salt with all
84 different trace mineral salts -found in sea water remember- means there
is a synergistic effect so you can safely consume sea-salt without the
adverse effects like you might have with the same amount of regular table
salt... with no trace minerals.
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- I caution the reader that most grocery store "sea-salt"
is processed so the trace minerals have been removed. Good sea salt isn't
white, reader! White ain't right! Sea Salt is grey, off-white or pink...
...there's even a black sea salt, Yo.
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- Well actually, table-salt does contain one trace mineral,
iodine, but certainly not in trace amounts. These are imposed big doses
of man-manipulated iodine, and without the synergistic effect of all the
other trace mineral salts present at the ratios found in nature, can actually
cause the very thyroid distress that it was supposed to fix!
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- Table salt also has additives like Aluminum as an anti-caking
agent. Can you spell geriatric dementia? Seriously, use this stuff to
help insure you won't be able to tell if it's "raining" or "pouring."
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- 5.. My favorite BP lowering stuff :
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- (a).. Calcium & MAGNESIUM... heavy on the Magnesium.
I recommend two (2), 400mg doses of powdered Calcium Citrate along with,
or separately, two (2), 400mg doses of powdered MAGNESIUM Citrate... take
with or w/o food for a daily total of 800mg Cal & 800mg Mag.
- There are only a couple of brands of Cal/Mag CITRATE
powder at this 1to1 ratio.
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- Ninety Nine % of all Cal/Mag Complexes are at a 2to1
ratio (equates to less Mag). Or you can get the Cal & Mag citrate
powder separately so you can take them at a 1to1 ratio (that I recommend).
- And you can then easily take a single 400mg dose of Mag.
Citrate at bedtime that will help you relax the same way it helps your
heart muscle relax... ...which lowers BP!
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- Citrate comes "preacidified" so it will work
w/o food unlike most other forms of cal & mag that must be taken with
a meal.
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- (b).. Fatty Acids - Take 2 to 8 grams of Krill oil
or Fish oil (Hi-Potency)... ...Optional - 2 to 4 grams of Black Currant
Seed Oil and/or 2 to 4 Tbls of Chia seed. These Fatty Acids activate
the Prostaglandins which reduce BP, inflammation, platelet stickiness and
allergic reactions.
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- FYI - "Hi-Potency" does not apply to Krill
oil. It only applies to fish oil - meaning each gram (1000mg) has 500mg
of Omega-3 ...Regular-Potency means each gram only contains 300mg of Omega-3.
Hi-Potency comes from smaller fish, from colder water.
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- (c).. L-Arginine - Is a cheap, popular "Vasodilator"
that weight-lifters use to increase blood flow & lower BP by causing
the blood vessels to dilate. Take a couple of divided 5 gram doses of
the powdered form on an empty stomach.
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- (d).. Beet root capsules - This is a great, cheap, natural
Vasodilator...or you can EAT BEETS, but who the heck is gonna do THAT -
seeing as how nobody ever actually says "Humm, lets run out and get
a big bowl of Beets".
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- (e).. Ginkgo Biloba - Vasodilator that homo Erectus
likely consumed on the Serengeti... it is the oldest tree on the planet.
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- (e).. L-Glutamine - Another popular weight-lifter supplement.
This is one of my all-time favorite supp's because it directly effects
EVERYTHING you consume by dramatically increasing the length & plumpness
of the intestinal villi lining the gut - which directly effects absorption
of nutrients and protects you from toxins. Also take a couple of 5 gram
doses w/o food. To avoid moisture contamination with L-Glutamine don't
have wet hands or leave the lid off.
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- Questions?
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- Alan Graham
- alan068@centurytel.net
- http://www.alienview.net/ALLTCON.html
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- Closing, I admonish the reader that Salt, of the correct
type and traces, is required in appropriate amounts actually. Blood doesn't
lie.
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- That's enough, well be.
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