How much salt in your hydration drink?

[Indigo Blue]

Salt is just all over the place with daily recommended limits, depending what source you read from. I’ve head it said before that salt is poison (kidney doctor), and I’ve heard that we need more salt in our diets than we think and all the salt fear mongering is hype. 
 

I recently watched one of Jessica Valant’s YouTube videos where she said that she gets dizzy due to low blood pressure. She did not mention having POTS or anything. I get dizzy too! Getting up from sitting, pulling weeds and repetitively bending/standing. Or if I get hot outside. 
 

I tend to notice that I feel lots better if I have a hydration drink, even if I am inside doing nothing. Jessica says she drinks a Liquid IV every single morning because of this. It made me wonder if I have the same problem. My blood pressure is not scary low, but it stays on the pretty low side and I think that can make you feel tired. 
 

So, hydration with salt helps, but the salt……how to know how much? Is it really bad? Is it really okay? 
 

Homemade recipes and store bought packets vary from 100mg all the way to 1000!

LMNT has 1000. 
 

It makes me feel so much better. So I go for a happy median of 500mg in 16 to 20 oz water. The rest is plain water. And I add magnesium to my morning smoothie, which also contains banana. 
 

I never encountered anyone who says they feel a bit dizzy until they use hydration formulas until Jessica, not including people who have POTS. Oddly, my younger son experiences this, too. He’s been told it’s because he is so tall. 🤨I’m not sure if that makes sense to get so dizzy just because you are tall. His blood pressure runs lower, too. 
 

Anyway, if I count the 500mg of salt in my drink, I get roughly 2000 per day or less. I don’t eat canned foods, but I do moderately salt my cooked beans/greens. 
 

Sometimes I just eat beans with salt broth instead of a hydration drink. I add lots of liquid to the beans and it makes a tasty warm “soup”. 
 

I have no idea if I’m harming my health, but I feel sluggish and sometimes dizzy if I don’t do salty liquid. 
 

Does ANYONE else deal with this? 

[Katy]

Low blood pressure runs in my family on my mom’s side. Several people on my moms side had extensive cardiac workups as fainting teens. No one mentioned POTS, but several people were told to drink more water and eat more salt. I don’t think anyone’s stayed problematically low after adult weight gain, but even after gaining a lot from prednisone mine was still frequently in the 110/58 range unless I was in pain. 

It’s high blood pressure, especially when combined with diabetes that kills kidneys. But there’s definitely a link, even in strict whole food plant based vegans, with blood pressure and salt consumption. At least according to the studies I’ve heard Michael Gregor discuss. 

The real answer, individually, is probably to track your sodium over time. You want it high enough to avoid bothersome symptoms like vertigo, or even lots of blisters on your feet when you exercise. And low enough to keep it in the ideal range of 120/60 or so. And the answer is probably going to change based on how healthy you’re eating (more greens, beans & fruit= more minerals & higher salt tolerance), the weather, and how much heavy exercise you’re doing. 

[Spryte]

I am on a high salt diet, per doc’s orders. I have had POTS for 15 years, and Addison’s for most of that time. When I’m flaring up, my doc recommends a water with salt and a squirt of lime first thing in the am. She specifically recommends against hydration drinks because of the ingredients. 

When our son had POTS issues, he was put on the same.

And if I get POTSy or it looks like I’m going into an adrenal crisis, DH brings me the same.

Have you talked to your doc about this?

Edited April 23 by Spryte

[Indigo Blue]

1 hour ago, Spryte said:

I am on a high salt diet, per doc’s orders. I have had POTS for 15 years, and Addison’s for most of that time. When I’m flaring up, my doc recommends a water with salt and a squirt of lime first thing in the am. She specifically recommends against hydration drinks because of the ingredients. 

When our son had POTS issues, he was put on the same.

And if I get POTSy or it looks like I’m going into an adrenal crisis, DH brings me the same.

Have you talked to your doc about this?

I haven’t talked to the doctor, but I guess I should. Yeah, I think some (or most) of the hydration packets probably don’t have the best ingredients. I like them, but I don’t use them a lot. They are convenient at times. Actually I use 500mg pink salt in lime juice and water just like your doctor recommends. I don’t add any sugar when I do that. 
 

 

 

[Indigo Blue]

5 hours ago, Katy said:

Low blood pressure runs in my family on my mom’s side. Several people on my moms side had extensive cardiac workups as fainting teens. No one mentioned POTS, but several people were told to drink more water and eat more salt. I don’t think anyone’s stayed problematically low after adult weight gain, but even after gaining a lot from prednisone mine was still frequently in the 110/58 range unless I was in pain. 

It’s high blood pressure, especially when combined with diabetes that kills kidneys. But there’s definitely a link, even in strict whole food plant based vegans, with blood pressure and salt consumption. At least according to the studies I’ve heard Michael Gregor discuss. 

The real answer, individually, is probably to track your sodium over time. You want it high enough to avoid bothersome symptoms like vertigo, or even lots of blisters on your feet when you exercise. And low enough to keep it in the ideal range of 120/60 or so. And the answer is probably going to change based on how healthy you’re eating (more greens, beans & fruit= more minerals & higher salt tolerance), the weather, and how much heavy exercise you’re doing. 

Thanks. This is helpful. 

[Kassia]

You should have your sodium levels tested too.  Mine are always low and have been dangerously low even with supplementation.  I take a salt tablet every day (1 gram) plus I use a lot of table salt and I still run low.  My blood pressure is always low to normal even with all the sodium I consume.  

[DawnM]

At the hospital in Africa where I grew up, they made their own version of gatoraid for the patients.   Water boiled with salt and sugar.   When your electrolytes are off or your blood pressure is down, or you just generally feel a malaise, they would give their mixture to.

Salt is not poison if you need it.   If you have high blood pressure and you eats tons of salt, then, yes, but salt has been used since the Dawn of time.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5103567/#:~:text=On the other hand%2C the,and secretion of gastric acid.