Fortunately, a good number of new afibbers aren't visiting the General Health Forum routinely...so they won’t see this recommendation and think that adding more salt is a healthy thing for their circumstances. In case they do, clarification on the topic is in order…especially as it relates to afibbers. That said, while adrenal function does require sodium for optimal function, it’s a small amount.
The sodium requirement to maintain overall health and functionality is relatively small… 500 – 1000 mg a day…compared to what a typical Standard American Dietary (SAD) intake of typically around 4,000 mg… often much higher.
Sodium competes with and overpowers potassium. As we all know from CR 72, an over-abundance of sodium (salt) in the diet is the fundamental interference factor for the proper functioning of the sodium/potassium ion pump mechanism that ultimately influences the regulation of the heart beat or electrical conduction functionality.
When intracellular potassium is low, the result is an increase in heart rate due to the shortening of the refractory period…or the time between beats. In hearts that have the tendency to slip into arrhythmia once the refractory period is shortened, adding more salt to their diet would be the worst advice possible. As noted in the following statement on CR 72, the result is lowered cell voltage and since the heart is functionally electric, it’s obvious that low potassium causes conduction problems.
Conference Room 72 [
www.afibbers.org] discusses the importance of maintaining a dietary intake of potassium to sodium in a ratio of at least 4:1…some say 5:1 or more. Ultimately what counts is the ratio inside the cells which is much higher. Anyone reducing dietary sodium, should also make sure they also are increasing dietary intake of potassium. Afibbers, especially need to optimize potassium intake.
Soon, I’ll be doing a review of this topic in the LAF forum for new members as an incentive for them to study CR 72 and apply the science presented to their lifestyles and dietary habits.
CR 72 explains some of the ways by which electrolytes and co-factor nutrients interact to produce the heart's normal rhythm. Very simply put, succinctly expressed by the words
Healing Is Voltage (Jerry Tennant MD's physiology text), most AF - indeed most disease - can be shown to originate from low cell voltage and the principal cause of low cell voltage (there are others) is low dietary potassium with high dietary sodium, along with deficiencies of core nutrients required for driving the cells' electrical generators, the ubiquitous sodium-potassium pumps.
Meanwhile, for this thread, it’s worthwhile reading through this interview with Richard D. Moore, MD, PhD (biophysics) about the focus of his books
The High Blood Pressure Solution and
The Salt Solution.. conducted by PhD nutritionist, Richard Passwater in 2001. Here’s a segment:
Dr. Moore’s comments are specifically relevant to the advice to about adding more sodium to one’s diet…
Potassium - to - Sodium Ratio Affects Overall Health
Moore: The DASH diet is a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough. It is very frustrating to me because it is entirely based on empiricism and "group think." Those responsible for the DASH diet just looked at evidence showing that there is a little bit of help to be derived from potassium, a little bit of help from sodium and so on. They put the DASH diet and clinical studies together without an understanding of the fundamental relationship between sodium and potassium. That is, they didn't understand the very important point that, because of osmotic equilibrium, the sum of the sodium and potassium inside the cell is very close to constant (within about 2%).
Therefore, it is virtually impossible -- not just because of the sodium/potassium exchange pump and all these things in the body which tend to move sodium in one direction and potassium in the other direction, but just because of physical reasons (the laws of physics) -- to lower sodium inside the cell without the involvement of potassium. Potassium has such an important role in the body. You can't lower the sodium without replacing it with potassium. That is the key: there is just no sense in talking about either sodium or potassium alone! This is so awfully important. It is one point that I would love to get across to the medical profession, but up until now most practitioners have failed to get it.
Therefore, the vast majority of those studies that have been done with dietary sodium were very poorly designed, scientifically. They didn't take into account that this is not a one variable situation. There are two variables that must be taken into account together! The two are linked, and you have to look at them together if you are going to see a pattern.
Passwater: Everyone in clinical studies is trained to look at one variable at a time, no wonder that synergistic effects are missed.
Moore: Not in physics - that's where my background is.
Passwater: It's a shame that more biochemists don't know a little about biophysics.
Moore: In medical school, this idea of trying to change one variable at a time has become a religion. But the only way you can do that is with drugs. You can change an intake of a drug, i. e. one variable, but once you look at what is going on inside the body, you discover that everything is interlinked. Thus, it is impossible to change one variable without all the others also shifting.
Passwater: I call that polypharmacy, and it's just too complex for the scientific method that people have been trained to use. All the nutrients seem to have interactions, and you just can't study them individually.
Moore: That's right. Nutritionists are still talking about sodium requirements. It depends on the potassium levels in the diet, too.
Passwater: It goes on and on. We try to get the message across. Eventually, clinical researchers will design clinical studies to look at more than one variable at a time. In the meantime, I guess we'll have to put up with some frustration.
Continue: [
www.drpasswater.com]
Jackie