Optimal Salt Intake / The Permanent Rehydration Water
Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 8:16 am
Once again, the mainstream consensus and public policy is at odds with the scientific evidence. Sodium intake has a U-curve response, where too low and too high sodium increases all cause mortality. Similarly to cholesterol, public policy has it set in the too low area. What's ironic is that despite five decades of public policy propaganda to lower your salt intake, 95% of Americans have ignored it. What does Nature know that bureaucrats do not? Hah!
Now personally, I believe that the potassium to sodium ratio could be far more iimportant than sodium intake per se, as sodium and potassium play key roles in maintaining homeostatis of the intracellular and extracullar fluids. They also play key roles in the normal operation of the adrenal and thyroid glands. But until scientists funded by public policy think tanks or government agencies manage to get up to this higher level of inquiry, we'll have to settle for a sodium U-curve.
Why am so interested in this subject? Well, on my last blood test a year ago there were indications that I was suffering from dehydration. I just chalked it off to being dehydrated during the fast period before the blood was drawn. However, as I've been using an infrared sauna daily for over 10 years now, it did not occur to me the dehydration might be indicative of a bigger issue until I took an intro physiology course about two months ago.
First, the course inspired me to come up with what I call "The Permanent Rehydration Water" which is water specifically aimed to rehydrate the body as quickly as possible. Unlike commerical junx like Gatorade, etc. this is a hypotonic solution which means it will be rapidly uptaked through the stomach. Gatorade, et al. is based on science that's over 50 years years old, so we can forgive them for it being tonic rather than hypotonic. Worse, there are even hypertonic sports waters now which is an oxymoron. But anything to make a buck due to marketing fiction!
Rehydration Water Recipe:
1 cup filtered water
1/2 tsp dextrose powder
1 smidgen (1/32 tsp) Himalayan Salt (or some other unrefined salt with potassium, calcium and magnesium trace minerals)
Half a smidgen (1/64 tsp) Potassium Chloride Powder
If you make 10 cups of the water at a time, increase the salt to a pinch (1/16 tsp). At 19 cups, increase to a dash (1/8 tsp). The potassium scales up likewise.
Next, over several days I weighed myself before the sauna after drinking the Rehydration Water, and again after I was done. To my surprise it ultimately took four cups of the Rehydration Water to not lose any weight! Just for a 40-minute session. A simple rule of thumb to determine how much water you need to drink before any activity is to multiple your post-activity weight loss by 1.5 and that is the amount in ounces. Example: Lose two lbs during an activity = 48 ozs before and during the activity. Since most people should drink two cups of water immediately upon arising to rehydrate their body after sleeping so long, I surmise that doing that alone was not enough to deal with both the dehydrating sleep and the dehydrating sauna. But, numbers do not lie. Weigh yourself!
Now, I had been adding 1/8th tsp of salt or potassium to my two cups of regular water until I switched to the Rehydration Water, but I had no way of knowing if it was or was not effective and if it was too much total salt intake for the day (potassium we're all deficient in, but gastrointestinal pains limit how much you can ingest as a powder). It also seemed pretty clear to me despite the large quantities of water I did drink throughout the day, it was just passing through pretty rapidly. It wasn't until I saw the sodium U-curve results published a few days ago, that I decided to look into the salt issue more closely. So what I did was I pre-measured out the amount of salt at the lower end of the U-curve and used it the next day for salting or seasoning food. Well not surprisingly, at the end of the day, there was 1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp of salt leftover! Would have beeen 1/4 tsp less if I had two servings of rice instead of one. Whats surprising is how much salt you can add while cooking food that "disappears" compared to salting with the same amount on top of it. But overall, it is clear I need to take 1/2 tsp of salt every day bare minimum just to get a healthy amount of sodium. Now technically, adding that much salt (I used 1/4 tsp per two cups) to the Rehydration Water could kick it out of being hypotonic, but I didn't notice any digestion issues.
The U-curve for the healthiest sodium intake is: 2645mg to 4945mg. To convert that to salt, multiply by 2.5, i.e. 2645mg of salt is 6612.5mg of salt, about 1 1/8 tsp.
Summary: It's very easy to not even get to the lower end of the range if you avoid all processed, canned and junx food as I do. Don't exacerbate it further with inadequate water intake due to sleep, sweaty exercise and/or saunas. So measure, measure, measure!
Now personally, I believe that the potassium to sodium ratio could be far more iimportant than sodium intake per se, as sodium and potassium play key roles in maintaining homeostatis of the intracellular and extracullar fluids. They also play key roles in the normal operation of the adrenal and thyroid glands. But until scientists funded by public policy think tanks or government agencies manage to get up to this higher level of inquiry, we'll have to settle for a sodium U-curve.
Why am so interested in this subject? Well, on my last blood test a year ago there were indications that I was suffering from dehydration. I just chalked it off to being dehydrated during the fast period before the blood was drawn. However, as I've been using an infrared sauna daily for over 10 years now, it did not occur to me the dehydration might be indicative of a bigger issue until I took an intro physiology course about two months ago.
First, the course inspired me to come up with what I call "The Permanent Rehydration Water" which is water specifically aimed to rehydrate the body as quickly as possible. Unlike commerical junx like Gatorade, etc. this is a hypotonic solution which means it will be rapidly uptaked through the stomach. Gatorade, et al. is based on science that's over 50 years years old, so we can forgive them for it being tonic rather than hypotonic. Worse, there are even hypertonic sports waters now which is an oxymoron. But anything to make a buck due to marketing fiction!
Rehydration Water Recipe:
1 cup filtered water
1/2 tsp dextrose powder
1 smidgen (1/32 tsp) Himalayan Salt (or some other unrefined salt with potassium, calcium and magnesium trace minerals)
Half a smidgen (1/64 tsp) Potassium Chloride Powder
If you make 10 cups of the water at a time, increase the salt to a pinch (1/16 tsp). At 19 cups, increase to a dash (1/8 tsp). The potassium scales up likewise.
Next, over several days I weighed myself before the sauna after drinking the Rehydration Water, and again after I was done. To my surprise it ultimately took four cups of the Rehydration Water to not lose any weight! Just for a 40-minute session. A simple rule of thumb to determine how much water you need to drink before any activity is to multiple your post-activity weight loss by 1.5 and that is the amount in ounces. Example: Lose two lbs during an activity = 48 ozs before and during the activity. Since most people should drink two cups of water immediately upon arising to rehydrate their body after sleeping so long, I surmise that doing that alone was not enough to deal with both the dehydrating sleep and the dehydrating sauna. But, numbers do not lie. Weigh yourself!
Now, I had been adding 1/8th tsp of salt or potassium to my two cups of regular water until I switched to the Rehydration Water, but I had no way of knowing if it was or was not effective and if it was too much total salt intake for the day (potassium we're all deficient in, but gastrointestinal pains limit how much you can ingest as a powder). It also seemed pretty clear to me despite the large quantities of water I did drink throughout the day, it was just passing through pretty rapidly. It wasn't until I saw the sodium U-curve results published a few days ago, that I decided to look into the salt issue more closely. So what I did was I pre-measured out the amount of salt at the lower end of the U-curve and used it the next day for salting or seasoning food. Well not surprisingly, at the end of the day, there was 1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp of salt leftover! Would have beeen 1/4 tsp less if I had two servings of rice instead of one. Whats surprising is how much salt you can add while cooking food that "disappears" compared to salting with the same amount on top of it. But overall, it is clear I need to take 1/2 tsp of salt every day bare minimum just to get a healthy amount of sodium. Now technically, adding that much salt (I used 1/4 tsp per two cups) to the Rehydration Water could kick it out of being hypotonic, but I didn't notice any digestion issues.
The U-curve for the healthiest sodium intake is: 2645mg to 4945mg. To convert that to salt, multiply by 2.5, i.e. 2645mg of salt is 6612.5mg of salt, about 1 1/8 tsp.
Summary: It's very easy to not even get to the lower end of the range if you avoid all processed, canned and junx food as I do. Don't exacerbate it further with inadequate water intake due to sleep, sweaty exercise and/or saunas. So measure, measure, measure!