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But when all the blood test came back, the full metibolic panel, etc. he said my sodium and potassium levels were "spectacular" was the word he used.
If my sodium levels are "spectacular" then why do I have to reduce sodium in my diet?
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NoCarbKat, I can understand your confusion. The source is that there are two separate issues: 1)
blood levels of sodium, and 2) the effect of
dietary salt (sodium chloride) on blood pressure.
Your doctor transitioned from one topic to the other without explaining.
A person can have normal blood sodium level with either normal, high, or low blood pressure.
And a person can eat two grams of sodium daily or 10 grams, and still see no change in blood pressure or blood sodium level. Others will see higher blood pressure with the high sodium intake.
I estimate that only one in five people are blood-pressure-sensitive to high sodium diets.
Doctors are under pressure to recommend low-sodium diets to patients with high blood pressure, if not everyone. Most physicians don't have time to do the research on the issue, so just go along with the crowd.
That being said, I like NancyLC's idea about self-experimentation with low salt intake. If my blood pressure were 150/100 and average sodium intake were 5 g a day, I'd cut down to 2-3 g daily for a month or so before going on drug therapy to lower BP. And I'd exercise regularly and work on loss of excess weight.
Eating very low-carb for the last four months seems to have dropped my systolic pressure by 10 points and diastolic by 5. They were not high to begin with. My particular program is naturally low in sodium, so I couldn't say the cause is low-carb eating
or low sodium intake, or the combination, or loss of 15 lb excess weight, or something totally unrelated.
Eating more natural whole food and less processed food tends to lower sodium intake automatically.