These 7 Signs Will Tell You If You Are Eating Too Much Salt

Jun 05, 2018

Did you know that the recommended daily amount of salt for an adult is just 2,300 milligrams a day? That’s only 1 tsp! Most of us eat much more than that every day. This excessive salt intake can lead to serious health consequences over time.

Thirst is a natural signal that your body needs water. However, a persistent thirst that is not easily quenched is not normal. This can be a sign that you have too much salt in your body; your biochemical ratio of sodium to water is not optimal and needs to be corrected by taking in extra water.

As your water intake changes, you can expect some changes to your urination. Excess water must be filtered out, which can make your urine appear lighter yellow. Salt is naturally removed by the kidneys; the presence of excess salt causes them to work harder. This puts stress on these important organs, which can also lead to clear or light-colored urine.

Clearly, salt has the potential to disrupt the way that water behaves within your body. As a result, the body’s natural balance can be pretty seriously disturbed. This manifests in swelling. Do you wake up with swollen ankles? Do you have trouble putting on rings that fit just the other day? Does your face look different from one day to the next? If so, then you may be experiencing swelling due to an excessive salt intake.

Under normal conditions, your kidneys can remove salt from your body. However, when too much salt is present, they must work harder. Along the way, calcium can also be lost. This means that your bones can also suffer. This leads to bone pain; you may experience joint pain in knees, elbows, shoulders, or wrists.

Excessive salt has cascading effects throughout the body; this is because it can disrupt so many of the normal biochemical processes that your body relies on to functioning optimally. People with hypertension due to too much salt may have damaged the arteries that feed the brain; this leads to a decreased blood supply, which can impair clear and speedy thinking.

As mentioned above, damage to the arteries leading to your brain can affect the blood supply feeding this vital organ. This has the potential to manifest as persistent, pounding headaches. Decreasing your salt intake can actually help clear up those pesky headaches when nothing else seems to fix them.

On top of everything else, salt can interfere with the way that muscles function. This is because the crucial balance of potassium and sodium can become disrupted when excessive salt is present in the body. The result is that muscles painfully spasm.

If you suspect that your salt intake is too high, speak with your doctor. Do you have any of these signs? Let us know what changes you might make to your lifestyle. Send this article to your loved ones so they can have a long healthy life as well!

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation with your doctor. Your health is important to us!