Salt Is Bad For You

[Mrs. Burschman]

I told my mom I started taking salt tablets, and she thought I was doing something horrible to myself. She said, why don't you just eat potato chips? I said because I try to eat healthy foods, so I have a hard time getting enough salt. I'm only following my doctor's advice!

Any advice on how you cope with well-meaning people questioning your medical decisions?

Amy

[worththewords]

Honestly, not to sound intentionally cynical, but there are certain things I just give up on telling/explaining to well-meaning people, especially the salt thing! If they ask what's new or if I am starting something new and want someone to know, I might say "Oh I'm trying a new med or therapy and it is supposed to *insert positive things it is supposed to do*" More often than not they don't ask what it is or I suddenly forget what it is called because more often than not if I name the medication so and so's aunt's brother's cousin took a medicine that also started with a C. It gets silly sometimes!

Salt is a really hard thing to explain to people. Growing up I never had salt in my diet because my mom thought it was so unhealthy. The only thing I can think of that I did eat growing up with salt was popcorn at the movies. You can imagine the look on my mom's face when she was at Mayo with me when I was given my diagnosis and they stressed the importance of increasing salt intake to someone who never consumed salt intentionally. I had a really hard time developing a taste for it on my food and still feel like it sort of ruins my food.

Good luck with the salt tablets, I know they really help some people.

[gdomaracki]

After time you learn to let it go in one ear and out the other...

People don't understand pots & the treatment necessary for us to feel better.

The salt should really help you

[Mrs. Burschman]

Blondie,

I noticed you take ThermaTabs. That's the same kind I'm trying.

I just don't like salt enough to be able to eat enough of it.

Amy

[taylortotmom]

Well, I just say as politely as I can- something to the effect of- "I wish that would work for me but unfortunately, my body is so weird I have to do pretty much the OPPOSITE of what most patients need (more salt, less exercise, GAIN weight)". If they press on, I explain dysautonomia to them (I use the analogy of a computer with a glitch or bad wiring a lot). Some people will NEVER understand (my father, bless his heart- and he's an educated man) but that's okay. Explain when and if you feel the need otherwise, just let it go- as frustrating as that can be at times

Carmen

[Lukkychrm42]

I know!!! Just because some people have too high blood pressure the headlines declare that salt is the next evil thing, and so everyone feels justified in judging how much you put on your food. On top of that, so many brands brag about how their latest version is now lower in salt, hurrah! And just when I thought I might be getting enough!!!

[Mrs. Burschman]

Lucky,

Yeah, I noticed that with V8 juice. They're saying in the ad, "now less salt!" I'm saying, "Put it back in, you bozos!"

Amy

[stampingamy]

Some of your posts had me laughing out loud. The salt thing really boggles people's minds. I went to visit a girlfriend for the weekend and she knows I eat pretzels a lot. She asked what kind I wanted. I told her pretzel rods. She asked what brand. I said, whatever, just check the label for the ones with the highest amount of sodium.

I also don't like to salt my food. I am really into more natural flavors. We steam vegetables a lot and I used to like them with a little fresh ground pepper. Then with my diagnosis I started adding salt to them. Now, when they aren't salted a lot they taste really blah to me. I think adding in all the salt is making me want the salt flavor in things. I guess that is good for my POTS.

Amy

[flop]

I can't stand the taste of salt added to fresh food, especially to vegetables! I take my POTS salt load through "Slow Sodium" tablets and just swallow them down with a large amount of water.

I get round the "salt is bad for you" thing by telling people that salt is bad for you because it raises your blood pressure which is bad for most people, however because my blood pressure is too low I need salt to try to raise it on purpose. If they don't understand that I give up and just ignore their "healthy eating" advice - after all we know more than them about our bodies!

Flop

[Rachel]

We've gotten some interesting replies about salt lately.

My mom went to the pharmacy yesterday to see if they sold any salt tablets. The pharmacist asked, "Salt tablets??? Does your doctor know you're doing this?" So my mom had to assure him that yes, it was prescribed by my doctor and would be safe for me to take.

My husband asked at another pharmacy for salt tablets. The lady said, "Salt? As in sodium chloride? Why would you want that?" Will explained to her that it is good for retaining fluids to raise my blood volume. "Oh, yeah I guess it would" was her reply. So she checked to see if they could order some for me.

[Mrs. Burschman]

I asked for them at one pharmacy and they usually have them, but they were out. I guess construction workers like them when it's really hot out and they're sweating gallons.

So there. Something we and construction workers have in common!

Amy

[pat57]

potato chips- daily will make you fat!

I like a cup of bouillon. I throw up the salt tablets.

Mothers have a strong urge to tell you the better way of doing what ever your doing. Its hard to fault her for something she needed to do for about 20 years.

And mothers can be wrong!!!

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[lthomas521]

Back when I worked for an international pharmaceutical company, I had lunch with a bunch of foreign-trained physicians every day. After a while, I stopped salting my food openly, rather than surreptitiously. One of the doctors, a German man who was really nice, finally said, "You really shouldn't put so much salt in your food." I said, "I hate salt, but a nephrologist, an internist, and a neurologist have all told me to put at least this much salt in my food. Otherwise I can't see when I stand up." He was astounded. None of the docs had ever heard of POTS, but the Argentine one took my pulse and said, "If you were my patient, I'd just give you a transfusion." Another one suggested that I get a salt lick for my cubicle.

[Dawg Tired]

A salt lick in my cubie.... I would have liked that when I was working!

[DADofPotsSon]

Just recently my son#2 who has ncs/pots had some college friends over and when they left to go out to eat I heard this conversation as they were going out the door "Hey whats with all the bottles in your cargo pants?" Immediately one of his friends responds with "thats nothing, wait till you see him shake the salt on his hamburger, it will look like frosting on a doughnut".

The wife and I had a good laugh when we heard those comments!

[runningshoe]

My dr says the salt tabs are harsh on the body, I drink vegetable broth. Taste like a mild v8 juice. Try it!

[Maxine]

I know chips taste nice and salty, but the sodium isn't that high---not for us anyway. There are plenty of things that are high in salt, and lower in calories. Believe me, this is painful to say as I love potato chips. I can't have them in the house, or I'll peck away at them until their gone. I get my salt from v-8, soups-(make sue ther's no MSG), and uncle bens seasoned rice and other things marked high sodium. Uncle Ben's doesn't have MSG.

Watch out for the MSG----(monosodium gludimate----spelling?)headache folks! All of you! It just doesn't help POTS symptoms, period.

The pretzels with the highest sodium is rold gold pretzal sticks-----the little skinny small sticks in a bag, with sodium over 500mg.

I'm not a big fan of a lot of table salt of my food, other then green beans, baked potato, or rice. I use a lot of pepper. I'm getting used to table salt more, and will add more of it on my other foods in a pinch when I feel I need the salt. Today my Dad and I went to the mall, and I got a soft pretzel without butter and extra salt on the side. I dip the already salted pretzel in the salt, and it keeps me going long enough to maybe visit a couple small stores in the mall.

I don't do this often, as the calories would add up. I had a lot of sodium today, and it really helped. I don't think I could take florinef, because of the partially blocked cerebral spinal fluid from cervical/cranial instability/congenital cervical spine stenosis, and my fluid gets too high, then my other neurological probems kick in. Otherwise, I think Dr. Grubb would have prescribed it long ago, as I have very low BPs, and blood pooling. I just try to keep extra salt in my diet.

No one has ever mentioned anything about me loading extra salt or eating high sodium foods to me. But I can see it preached everywhere.

Maxine :0)

[yogini]

I agree with Maxine and some of the others on the salt. The things that regular people consider salty like chips don't do it for us. And Gatorade actually has less salt than a serving of chips! My main source of salt is 2 cups of organic chicken broth daily, each with 750 mg of sodium. I remember reading an article that frozen and canned foods are also good for people with POTS. I can't stomach most of those, other than very specifc brands of things (like Amy's Organic Pizza). Tomato sauce in a jar is pretty good too.

I also agree on the MSG. I used to use Campbell's soup and then another powdered broth which had MSG. I think companies sneak in MSG by using other names for it - like hydrolized vegetable protein. My headaches went down when I switched to organic broth.