heart attack

Problems for human health associated with excessive use of salt

Salt is an essential ingredient of modern dietary practices, and you can find salt shakers on every table if you go out for eating at a restaurant. Salt or sodium chloride is primarily composed of sodium and chloride. In salt, sodium is present at around 40% by weight. Sodium is essential for the human body as it controls the blood volume and blood pressure in the body. In addition, salt enhances the food’s taste and also provides the body with the required quantity of salts. Have you ever imagined your diet without salt? It will certainly be a tasteless situation. Salt is used as a flavor enhancer but some people have to stop consuming it due to their habit of consuming excess salt, a habit which can lead to extreme problems for your health.
Some people have a habit of adding extra salt even when the food already has sufficient amount of salt. You must have noticed people shaking the salt and pepper shakers too often while having their meals. But this habit is not healthy as consuming excess salt can lead to some serious health condition.

Hypertension: If consumed in large quantity, this consumption of salt can lead to hypertension because of the sodium present in salt (sodium chloride). Hypertension, in turn, pressurizes the heart, something which is a threat to the normal functioning of the heart. One of the major risk factors for heart failure and other problems such as arterial aneurysm, stroke, myocardial infraction, and a leading cause of chronic kidney failure is persistent hypertension. Moderate increase of arterial blood pressure may also lead to shortened life expectancy. That’s why, hypertension patients are advised to cut down the quantity of dietary salt.

Cardiovascular diseases(CVD): Excess consumption of salt can also lead to cardiovascular diseases(CVD) and increases the risk of strokes and asthma. A high amount of dietary salt leads to the thickening of the arteries which hampers the natural flow of blood towards the heart, thereby increases the chances of cardiac failure. It is now scientifically proved that people who excessively consume salt on a daily basis are more likely to suffer from renal functional failure than others who don’t.

Obesity and Osteoporosis: In women, excess intake of common salt reduces the bone density which can lead to osteoporosis. Obesity is one more disorder that occurs due to excessive consumption of salt because of improper breakdown of sodium. High amounts of sodium is deposited in the stomach which can also cause stomach cancer if it remains for longer periods.

How to reduce salt consumption?
Our taste for salt is a habit. Gradually lower the amount of salt in diet and your taste will begin to change. After some time, food will begin to taste better without salt or less salt. Reductions of salt intake can be done in a number of ways :

Avoid using excess table salt while cooking and use spices instead which contains salt in them.
Avoid directly adding salt to food.
Do read package labels to learn about the sodium content of prepared foods while shopping food.
Keeping in mind all these harmful effects caused due to the excess consumtion of salt, it is advised to minimize the amount of salt to a moderate quantity. One should refrain from consuming salt in excess amount to live a healthy life.

Prescribed amount of salt: You very often add a pinch of salt to vegetable pinch of salt to your vegetable might quickly add up to unhealthy levels of sodium. Doctors say, moderate amount of salt consumptions on daily basis should be about 1¼ spoon which equals 500mg per day.

| More

If you found this post informative, why not sign up to receive new posts ?
It's simple, and free, and you can even opt to receive by email:
Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Good Health Tips by Email

Things that can be done to lower high blood pressure…

What is High Blood Pressure?
Arteries carry blood from heart to rest of the body. While carrying blood they put pressure on artery walls. This pressure is called blood pressure and high blood pressure occurs when your blood moves through your arteries at a higher pressure than normal.
The upper or first number in a blood pressure reading is the systolic pressure which is the peak blood pressure when your heart is squeezing blood out and the lower or second number is called the diastolic pressure which is the pressure when your heart is filling with blood relaxing between beats. A normal blood pressure is less than 120/80. Symptoms may include dizziness or dizzy spells, headache or nosebleeds.

Causes of High Blood Pressure
- Weight
- Activity level
- Use of tobacco
- Excessive sodium intake
- Stress
- Low potassium intake
- Age and alcohol consumption
- Diabetes
- Some causes are kidney disease, hormonal disorders, thyroid disease, adrenal gland disease, and the use of certain drugs.
The complications that are caused by high blood pressure are narrowing of the arteries, stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney failure or eye damage.

Things that can be done to reduce high blood pressure
- Reducing your salt intake, eating more fruit and vegetables and keeping to alcohol limits will lower your blood pressure.
- Being more active and taking regular exercise lowers blood pressure by keeping your heart and arteries in good condition.
- Being the right weight lowers blood pressure because your heart doesn’t have to work so hard.
- Try Yoga, it will reduce stress.
- Eat a healthy and well balanced diet.
- Limit the intake of alcohol.
- Avoid tobacco products and secondhand smoke.
- Cut your caffeine intake.
- Have cholesterol and triglycerides checked regularly.
- Increase your fiber intake.

How fit you are can be judged by your heart rate during exercise and rest…

Resting heart rate or bradycardia refers to the number of times the heart beats per minute, when you are at rest. Normal range is 50 to 100, most people’s hearts beat 60 to 80 times a minute. Above 100 is considered a rapid pulse, called tachycardia. resting heart rate varies from person to person and over the course of the day, due to genetics and other factors. Heart rate is faster when you get excited, anxious, or angry or if you are in pain or fever. It rises temporarily if you smoke or drink a lot of alcohol or coffee. On the other hand, resting heart rate slows during sleep and tends to be lower if you are very fit.

In general, a slower heart rate is better than a faster one as faster rate puts more pressure and stress on your heart and blood vessels. In fact, studies have shown faster resting heart rates increases risk of heart disease and death from all causes, independent of fitness levels and other cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and being overweight.

A higher heart rate is linked to poorer outcomes in both healthy people and those with heart disease. Resting heart rate may be an even better predictor of premature death than cholesterol and blood pressure. Reducing heart rate is an accepted treatment goal for people with certain heart conditions, but it may also benefit people with hypertension and, preliminary research suggests may be even healthy people.

Heart rate during aerobic exercise raises your heart rate for at least 20 minutes. This enhances aerobic capacity – that is, the ability of your cardiovascular system to deliver oxygen to the body’s cells during exercise.
How long it takes to reach your target heart rate largely depends on how conditioned you are. If you are in poor shape, your heart rate will go up quickly with exercise. If you are in good shape, it will take longer. If your heart rate is naturally low, one has to overwork to get into the standard target zone; if your heart rate is high to start with, you may get into the zone too easily.

the length of time it takes for heart rate to return to normal is a good measure of fitness. The more fit you are, the faster the recovery. Heart rate drops most sharply in the first minute after you stop exercising, it should then fall about 20 beats a minute – a drop of less than 12 beats a minute is considered abnormal. This recovery heart rate is measured as part of an exercise stress test.