That life sustaining substanence ...

[dc4bs]

I once made the mistake of listening to the whole salt is bad for you hype (maybe true for some people, I guess)...

I didn't do anything special, just cut out chips and didn't add any additional table salt to any food for a few weeks.

Got out of bed for school one morning and fell over. Evrything just went black for a few seconds...

I ate a big bag of Doritos on the way to school and soon felt just fine.

LOW blood pressure runs in my family. It can sometimes be as much of a problem as high BP - just the other direction. Every time my sister or I go to a doctor for any reason and they check BP, they immediatly start asking if we feel OK and would we like to lay down?

My resting pulse is sometimes as low as 46 and it's not like I work out much or anything (sometimes I wonder what I could get it down to if I did work at it...). It's probably a big part of why my air consumption is low compared to most of the divers I know though.

 

[devjr]

Hey, resurrecting this old thread? Good. Yes, common salt is used as a treatment for some low blood pressure conditions. The one that comes to mind is low press related to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. These people may have low pressure or inability to make rapid BP compensation when rising or tilting.

Yep, some people have inherited low blood cholesterol and in your case, low BP. The low pulse is interesting. Often, the body will tend to compensate for low BP by increasing the volume. It might be related to brain wiring in the area that controls the autonomic nervous system, who knows? Just lucky, I guess.

Salt intake aids in water retention also. Helps to compensate for losses through sweating. Exposure to cold and drop in skin temperature seems to be related to the urge to pee and subsequent dehydration. When cold, the individual's blood tends to retreat from the limbs and build up in the bodies central, or core regions. The kidneys respond by increasing urination. I wonder if extra salt would modify that response.