Drinking Salt Water Causing Stomach Cramps

[Dizzysillyak]

It's always something ... Anyone else run into this ? I've been using celtic or sea salt since May 08 and it just started bothering me. When I first started salt loading I noticed if I put some on my hand and just licked it off, my stomach would hurt so I stopped doing that. Can too much salt damage your stomach ? Any solutions ? Have they done any studies on this ? Does this happen to everyone who salt loads ?

I've been staying away from things like Gatorade because of the chemicals, but is that a better alternative ?

Thanks ...

BTW. I'm a celiac with other digestive issues so maybe my digestive tract is just overly sensitive ...

[Sophia3]

Salt in Gatorade or canned soups is dissolved in part of the processing. If you add salt to water to drink, it can make you sick. Also salt tablets or TOO much salt shaker food.

Yes salt can AGGRAVATE our insides, just like salt used on roads for snow eats metal on cars.

be careful with salt and make sure it's in cooked foods...yes with Celiac you might have more sensitive stomach.

I know since using salt tabs YEARS ago, to this day, I can no longer eat spicy foods. It makes my insides hurt. I stilll use salt ok shaken on food but would never drink salt water...it can be used as an emetic IIRC (If I recall correctly)

Good luck

[Dizzysillyak]

Thanks Sophia,

That makes perfect sense. I wasn't watching to make sure it was totally dissolved in my water. DUH !! It's always the little things that nail you ...

Speaking of salt loading, has anyone gotten any better from this or is it just another short term solution / treatment ?

I read an article yesterday that said using Nutrinerve which is ALA, GLA, benfotiamine and borage oil might help. This seems like more of a solution rather than a short term treatment. The link to the article is in thread about copper.

I always look and feel better when I've gotten my omega 3s. I haven't tried the benfotiamine (actually, I may have but I don't know what it is yet and where it's found). I was taking borage oil but I need to buy some more.

Ideas anyone ?

[Dizzysillyak]

Here's that article that mentions nutrinerve ...

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlere...#b12-tcrm-4-837

Here's the link for a study on benfotiamine ... BTW, it's just a lipid soluable from of thiamine.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10219465

[summer]

I have to be careful how I take in salt too. I can't drink salt water or take salt tablets. They do have an emetic effect on me. I can tolerate lots of salt in my food though, so I make sure I get it that way.

[yogini]

I have a sensitive stomach. The only thing that works for me is drinking broth. I buy organic boullion or organic soup base, the kind w/o MSG.

[flop]

I put himalayan salt in my drinking water. For a large glass you should only add a small sprinkle of salt. My practitioner advised me that the right amount of salt will make the water feel softer in your mouth but it shouldn't taste salty at all.

One way of knowing if you are taking the right amount of salt is to get your doctor to order a 24 hour urine sodium level. If you are peeing less than 170mmol of sodium in 24 hrs then you should try to increase your salt, if your level is way above 200mmol then you are probably overdoing the salt.

Flop

[Dizzysillyak]

Thanks for all the replies ... I looked up emetic and all I could find was what would happen immediately BTW ... BE CAREUL here ... salt overdoses can kill ... who knew ?????

I hope I haven't done any damage to my digestive tract ... I couldn't find anything on it .. probably not though, since I'm ok food wise ...

Interesting info on the urine test. My doc took a look at my blood work and said my sodium was fine ..

I'm sticking to salt in my food for now .. I really should make some broth ... I understand it is great for leaky gut ...

BTW. I asked in the first post if anyone had actually healed themselves with this but I didn't get an answer. I haven't made any progress whatsoever by doing this ... sure it helps me short term, but who wants to keep salt loading forever ... and of course, those special salts have minerals, but not nearly enough ...

I did some reading and ran into a few who eliminated their dysautonomia by chelating ... so I guess that's next ...

[flop]

Grrrr! I am so fed up of doctors who think that checking your blood sodium level will see if we are taking in enough sodium.

I have tried to explain below but please note that things are actually much more complicated if you are dehydrated!

It is actually quite difficult to get your blood sodium much out of the normal range (other than being severely dehydrated) as it is carefully controlled by the kidneys. If I stop taking my extra salt I get worse POTS symptoms and my urine sodium level goes down but my blood sodium level stays normal. Any extra sodium that you eat is excreted by the kidneys into the urine (everyone has sodium in their urine). When you eat too much sodium the urine sodium will be very high.

There was a study done by Prof Hainsworth in the UK a few years ago. He measured 24 hour urinary sodium levels in a group of people with orthostatic intolerance. He then put them on a salt loading regimen. He found that the people who's initial 24 hr urine sodium levels were less than 170mmol/24hr were the people who's symptoms improved with increased salt intake.

From that study you can use 24hr urine sodium to see if you are taking in enough salt. The people who's levels were already high, probably (my thoughts here) didn't benefit from extra salt as they already had enough salt in their diets.

I do occasional 24 hour urine collections to make sure that I am taking enough salt but also to make sure that I am not taking too much either. (Actually handed in a collection 2 days ago - waiting for the results).

Flop