Salt is an essential part of our diet. It is a seasoning that can flavour food and act as a preservative. It’s about 40% sodium and 60% chloride.
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It is important to note that the human body requires a small amount of salt to conduct nerve impulses, contract and relax muscles, and maintain the proper balance of water and minerals.
However, if you are eating too much salt, it can throw your body off balance and cause several immediate side effects, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.
So, in order to be able to control your salt intake and prevent health issues, here are some signs of too much salt you should look out for.
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You Get Thirsty Frequently
If you’ve been really thirsty lately, it could be a sign that you’re eating too much salt. When that happens, you become dehydrated. Your body pulls water from your cells, and you might start to feel very thirsty.
Drinking water can help neutralize that salt and freshen up your cells.
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If you feel like you’re urinating a lot, it could be a sodium issue. Since salt impacts the levels of fluids in the body resulting in extreme thirst, once the thirst is satisfied then the body responds with an increase in bathroom breaks to help filter out the
excess salt that caused the thirst in the first place.
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You Experience Swellings In Certain Parts Of Your Body
Strange swelling is bound to occur when one is talking too much salt. Let us say you did overload on salt tonight, then you may wake up with some serious swelling in unexpected places. It is normally felt around your ankles and fingers. This is caused by the retention of water in the body.
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Your Blood Pressure Is High
There are lots of reasons you might have high blood pressure, but one could be too much sodium. The change in blood pressure happens through your kidneys. Too much salt makes it harder for them to get rid of fluid that you don’t need. As a result, your blood pressure goes up.
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You Experience Achy Bones
Salt intake can be a great obstacle to a sturdy skeleton. When you eat too much regular table salt, your kidneys can’t flush it out completely, and this increases calcium loss greatly. A chronic calcium deficiency can result in weak bones, problems with your teeth, and can even cause the development of osteoporosis.
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You Experience Stomach Problems
The salt you’re eating can actually harm your stomach. Sodium can cause H. pylori in the stomach, which means it may end up causing ulcers, stomach cancer, and other gastric issues. It may become extremely painful, and can cause nausea and vomiting. Cutting the salt might be able to help ease the symptoms, so check with your doctor to see if that’s what is causing it.
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You Get Frequent Headaches
Headaches are a real pain, literally, but you may be making them worse by having too much salt in your diet. Salt causes the blood vessels in your brain to expand more than they should, which causes that annoying, throbbing pain.
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You Aren’t Sleeping Well
If you eat too much salt before bed, it can lead to disturbances in your sleep. Signs can range from a restless sleep to waking up often at night, to not feeling rested in the morning.
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You Crave Salty Foods
If you find out that you are constantly craving salty foods, it’s probably because you’ve altered your taste buds. By eating a lot of salt you start to develop a taste for it, so when you do try to eat low-sodium options they end up tasting bland. So, pay attention to your cravings.
Featured Image Source: Harvard Health
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This article was first published on 1st February 2022
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