Relation between Salt and Heart Disease: Healthy Meals, Diets, & Nutrition Information

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

I thought I heard the lady on the news just now say doctors found a relation between salt intake and a persons happiness so I started scouring through Google News to see if I can find anything about that.

I haven't found anything about that, but I did find an interesting article about salt intake at WebMD published yesterday.

Quote:

If Americans reduced their salt intake by just 1 gram per day, there would be 250,000 fewer new cases of heart disease and 200,000 fewer deaths in a decade. These new statistics, announced at the American Heart Association's Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, were calculated through a computer simulation of heart disease among adults in the U.S.

I was a salt addict when I was a kid, I dashed some into my hand and ate it every time I got near a salt shaker for years. I'm not that bad about it these days, but I still put what's probably a large amount of salt by anyones' standards on a lot of things I eat.

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Aha!
I found what I was originally looking for here.

Quote:

Ever wonder why those French fries taste so good when you are depressed?

Here’s one theory: Salt is a natural antidepressant, which might explain why we have a tendency to over-ingest it.

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

I never knew that salt is a natural antidepressant. That was an interesting article. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I knew that high salt intake could lead to high blood pressure, therefore increasing the threat for heart disease, but I had no idea about salt being an antidepressant!

HealthyPals · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

I found this part of the article interesting:

Quote:

Johnson said the human body comes equipped "with a taste system designed to detect salt and a brain that remembers the location of salt sources," which is why your body often craves the taste of salty foods.

"This suggests that salt need and cravings may be linked to the same brain pathways as those related to drug addiction and abuse," Johnson said.

The article also reminded you that before you switch off Prozac and replace it with potato chips, to remember that too much salt intake can still lead to high blood pressure and heart disease.

sally · **Site Rank:** Healthy Friend

joebert wrote:

I was a salt addict when I was a kid, I dashed some into my hand and ate it every time I got near a salt shaker for years.

So does that mean you were a very happy child???

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

sally wrote:

So does that mean you were a very happy child???

When I wasn't in trouble.

One time while my next door neighbors were on vacation I was happy to climb on the roof of their garage, break in through the attic vent, take a bunch of paint, and paint smiley faces amongst other things on the side of their garage to surprise them when they got back from vacation.

Apparently I was the only one happy about it.

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

Ha! That's funny! You were the only happy one about the smiley faces!

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

I ran out of salt last week and now that I think about it, I have been pretty cranky around dinner time with seemingly no reason for the last few days.

Ziggy · **Site Rank:** Healthy BBF

I hope you don't go buy any more salt. There is so much salt in a lot of the foods we eat already. Just think about when you reach an older age, do you want to be on high blood pressure medicine, or heart medicine or whatever other medicine you may have to take because of a "salt addiction" you still have today? And all that medication costs a lot of money!!

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Quote:

And all that medication costs a lot of money!

Funny thing really. The more my medication would cost, the less I would have to pay with the way the US health care system is setup. There's a lady in my appartment complex who could probably survive without at least one of the medications she's on and could get by with half as many doctors visits as she currently makes, but if she did that she would have to pay for nearly all of it herself because of "share of cost" threshholds, whereas now she doesn't pay anything.

But yeah, that's part of the reason I've not been in a hurry to get more salt. I know I eat too much of it.

Ziggy · **Site Rank:** Healthy BBF

Yep, that's the "crazy system" we have :!:

Good for you and your salt decision. Even though the more your medication would cost and the less you would have to pay... it wouldn't be a fun life having to take it everyday. Take one pill, and it usually requires another to counteract the first pill, doesn't it? lol.

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Maybe Obama and Clinton will get this strange system worked out. The problem is it's hard to apply an effort/reward system to health care because of the humility aspect of it all. When you can't apply the effort/reward system to something it gets all screwy like this.

Taking meds really wouldn't be any worse than taking a handfull of vitamins every day is.

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

joebert wrote:

Taking meds really wouldn't be any worse than taking a handfull of vitamins every day is

I agree! I am a vitamin nut! I have that little weekly container where I put my daily vitamins in it for each day. If I needed to add a medication to my daily dose of vitamins... I probably wouldn't even notice that it was added. I'm not saying I want to be on any medication though!

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Quote:

If I needed to add a medication to my daily dose of vitamins... I probably wouldn't even notice that it was added.

It probably wouldn't be that easy.

If I remember right you're supposed to wait 2 hours after taking any medications in pill form to take vitamins, for some types of medications it's upwards of 6 hours between them.

Ziggy · **Site Rank:** Healthy BBF

But at least if you happen to not take the vitamins for that day, or even totally quit taking them, except for one multiple, no big problem, since most of the foods we eat really do have all the nutrients we need, if it's a healthy diet, but skip a med for high blood pressure or heart problems and whoa...that could be a disaster.

And yep, I read that too about having to be careful of what vitamins and when to take vitamins if on certain mediccations.

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