You've probably been told to eat less salt
at some point in your life, especially if you have high blood pressure. There's tons of salt
in premade and prepackaged food, and 90% of Americans at least eat more than 2,300 milligrams a day,
the recommended limit, which translates to about a teaspoon of table salt. What your doctor is really concerned about is the sodium in salt. We need sodium to survive. It plays an important role in almost every part of your body. But when you eat too much of it, it can cause some serious damage.
When you eat salt, the sodium
winds up in your bloodstream, where it draws more water into your blood vessels to keep the overall concentration
of sodium in balance. But that means there's more liquid
running through your blood vessels, which creates more pressure, so too much salt can raise your blood pressure. And as you probably know,
high blood pressure isn't great for you. Over time high blood pressure
damages blood vessel walls, creating little pockets for fats, platelets, and other debris to build up. These build-ups, called plaques, make the blood vessels narrower. Then your heart has to work harder to pump blood through a narrower, less stretchy tube.
And the heart isn't really a muscle you want to strain. High blood pressure can also cause kidney problems, making it harder for your kidneys
to filter out the excess sodium from your blood,
and keep your blood pressure down. In case that doesn't sound bad enough, high blood pressure
can damage blood vessels in the brain leading to problems like strokes and dementia. High blood pressure can affect
other parts of your body, too. It can do things like cause sexual dysfunction, lead to bone loss,
and damage blood vessels in the eye. So most experts agree that you should
keep below the daily 2,300-milligram limit, especially if you already have high blood pressure. Thanks for asking and thanks especially to all of our patrons on Patreon who keep these answers coming. If you'd like to submit a question to be answered, go to patreon.com/scishow and don't forget to go
to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe..
