How a diet high in salt increases blood pressure
The amount of salt you eat has a direct effect on your blood pressure.
Sodium plays a key role in balancing the levels of fluid in our bodies by signaling to the kidneys when to retain water and when to get rid of water.
When we eat too much salt, our bloodstream has more sodium in it than the surrounding areas of our body. This causes the water in those areas to be pulled into our bloodstream.
Thus Salt makes your body hold on to water. If you eat too much salt, the extra water stored in your body raises your blood pressure. So, the more salt you eat, the higher your blood pressure.
A high-sodium diet can interfere with this delicate process and reduce kidney function. The result is less water removed from the body, which may lead to higher blood pressure.
The higher your blood pressure, the greater the strain on your heart, arteries, kidneys. Overtime these extra strain can damage kidney an lead to kidney disease.
As this reduces kidney’s ability to filter toxic waste products out of the body which gradually start building up in the body leading to kidney failure.
Also, eating too much salt may mean that blood pressure medicines (such as diuretics) don’t work as well as they could.
So spice up your life with salt..but cautiously.