Seawater salt => high blood pressure?

[Tygershark]

Hello,

Seems that many dive professionals exhibit symptoms of high blood pressure during work. Also, the relatively high number of fatalities related to cardio-vascular illness might indicate something happening with regards to the environments we dive in.

Could this be related to salt absorption from seawater causing high blood pressure?

If so, I presume a possible solution would be to drink a lot more water, but I wonder how much should you drink to avoid saline deficiency.

Thanks for your advice,


R.

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi Tygershark,

In a word, very likely not.

It is possible that the saltwater diver could gain some sodium through ion exchange across the semipermeable membrane known as skin, but the amount would be expected to be quite minimal.

More importantly, while increased sodium blood levels have been adduced as a cause of hypertension and its target organ damage for a very long while, to date the bulk of the research indicates only a rather weak relationship between sodium intake/excretion and blood pressure in a general population that is not overweight, borderline hypertensive or elderly. For the majority of individuals with BP within the normal range, a rather significant change in sodium intake/excretion typically is required to achieve even a modest alteration in BP.

BTW, an increase in systolic blood pressure would be anticipated during work or exercise, saltwater dive professional or no.

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[Tygershark]

Thanks for the reply.