Was wondering about the best way to deal with the effects of a salty meal on one's system (and please don't suggest avoiding them in the first place which I already try to...this is a "falling off the wagon" question).
I am thinking "natural diuretics" might be helpful to accelerate the process of purging the sodium from one's system, and so, I am trying something called "water balance factors" which in addition to potassium has vitamin B6, corn silk, elder flower, hydrangea root (isn't this toxic?), uva ursi leaf, parsley, samphire fruit, and watermelon seed. I am also eating 4 stalks of celery, an old diuretic and BP treatment. I am not on prescription diuretics as you may guess.
I suppose what I'm asking is has anyone else had experience with quickly purging sodium or does the body just need to run its own course? My own OCD is such that whenever I eat a very salty meal I get paranoid I'm going to have a stroke soon after...
I think I've mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again. I notice no effect, whatsoever, on my blood pressure after eating a salty meal. Now, if I start down that slippery slope of eating junk ALL the time, that typically leads to not working out and a few weeks in I'll see my BP numbers start to creep into a pre-hypertensive range. But, a purely salty meal does not raise my BP at all. Now, sometimes if I drink too much, I'll get a bit bloated and my diastolic tends to raise a bit for a few days... like 120/85 or something.
As far as natural diuretics, I've always been told to drink tons of water w/lemon as well as coffee. It should flush the body out nicely in a day or so. I would say, with almost certainty, that you will not stroke out from occasionally having a junky meal.
Remember you have to have a clot for the kind of stroke most of us are at risk for so make sure you drink 8 glasses (8oz) throughout the day & take aspirin to prevent a clot if your Dr. approves. Get plenty of exercise to keep the blood moving. Don't eat too much protein especially meat which would contribute to forming a clot.
Allow yourself to have a salty meal from time to time. It's the deprivation that does the most harm by motivating a person to seek out what we are trying to avoid. Fam
Just reading this topic makes me think how crazy we really are. Worrying about one meal? Thank god i'm not that crazy about things yet, lol but i'm getting there!
I have a feeling none of us are going to have any problems with strokes or anything like that. Only cause we are so worried about it and we always go to the doctors to get checked out! It's always the people who don't pay attention that have problems.
LOL that was so easy to post! yet i'm always worrying about it all the time.
Exercise. Sweating gets rid of a ton of sodium, which is why (as I understand) drinks like gatorade have a lot of sodium.
My Doc also said that overall sodium will only affect your BP by a couple of points. I'm sure it's different for different people, but in most people, I'm sure that sodium is not going to cause a life-threatening spike in BP.
I eat low sodium for BP benefits, but I also found that it just helps me to eat healthier overall. So, regardless of the benefits I might get from reduced sodium, I'll grab some fruit instead of a bag of pretzels, and that's undoubtedly good for me.
