Being retired and reading all week long on optimum health for years, I have studied the recommendations of 40-50 docs. This MD is the one I have come to trust the most. His books literally saved my life.
I completely agree with you. I’m also retired and doing what has been suggested by Dr Fung. I now feel like a 24 year old. Fasting has changed my approach on life. I only wish I did this years ago. Wish you well.
9 months after I started a keto diet my blood pressure dropped from 140/90 down to 90/68 over a period of two weeks. It has since come back up a little to 110/70 and stayed there for the last 7 years. In my experience not eating large amounts of sugar and starch has an enormously larger effect on blood pressure than salt does.
Same for me. 2 years on keto, and my blood pressure is perfect. And, I eat much more salt now. Salt is good for body, it will get rid from excess of it easily. Low salt is dangerous.
@@mav5701 My doctor was on the verge of telling me to go on them, but I went on the diet, and it got rid of pre-diabetes within a month, and I figured the hbp would go too, and it did.
Same experience not only have i followed a very low carb diet for 3 years now but i increased my salt intake dramatically (i was before a low salt nerd) having learned that we lose a lot of salt in the urine when the insuline level is low. Insuline has a renal effect..
Thank you for exposing the bias in medical research. Just me, but I have been eating lots of salt and I have lower blood pressure than I have ever had. I cut out carbs and processed foods, and have been intermittent fasting. The results are amazing!
Salt is the most natural mineral to consume. We need salt for electrolytes, and normalisation of blood pressure and other blood markers. 🤓 Whatever big pharma or big food point to as bad, just do the opposite 😃
One of the very many lies we've been told. At one stage, when doing lots of physical work in the heat I had to take salt tablets on top of hving lots of salt to stop muscles cramping up. Yes I know lack of magnesium causes muscles knotting up, but salt stop them cramping up 😊
Being retired and reading all week long on optimum health for years, I have studied the recommendations of 40-50 docs. This MD is the one I have come to trust the most. His books literally saved my life.
Luckily I don't have that problem, everything I mention to him I pickup here or berg my doc usually agrees or admits he doesn't know and on the spot opens his laptop and researches it and forms a opinion, I got lucky when I found him ✌
@@HeritageWealthPlanning he/she can’t. Just an embarrassing troll. I’ve been learning from fung, berg, ekberg. Lost 30 lbs in 4 months. No meds. Feel great. This troll would rather u be on meds for bp, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. As long as u see a “real” dr, lol. The egomaniacal mind is a terrible thing, haha. Peace.
Few years ago i stopped adding salt to my food because some guy said it was bad for health. First three days my muscles would and joints could barely move and I had pains trying to bend my arms. After a week my body adapted but now i started getting heart palpitations and chest pains, it took me several months to figure out it was the lack of salts that was causing this, when i finally started adding salt again my heart palpitations and chest pains went away.. Salt is essentiel for my wellbeing 🙏
Using Dr. Fung’s methods I’ve lost 95 lbs since January 2021. I can’t believe how much his lectures and videos helped change my life, it’s incredible. Thanks for posting these videos Dr. They keep me motivated to stay the course in changing my life and being a healthy person.
Rapid weight loss- more then 2lbs a week is very dangerous. You can lose your gallbladder. I did. You "might" be ok. The math shows that you "averaged" ~1.61 lbs. a week. Though in the beginning I bet you lost much more rapidly. That is where you run into a problem. Since it's been ~3 years, you might have gotten lucky. Never use mouthwash.
@@MOAB-UT If you have a lot to lose plus you're eating and supplementing correctly it's fine, especially if you excersize as well. Mouthwash is fine too.. depending the mouth wash.
@@OceanFrontVilla3 I disagree with everything you said. I did lose 50lbs. and a Gallbladder. Now I cannot gain weight- a little too skinny. All mouthwash inhibits NO production so very bad.
Nice to see a nephrologist take this on. A study did show an upper intake of 12,000mg (~3.5 teaspoons) of salt per day increased mortality due to heart disease. The "middle ground" allows for safe and beneficial intake in excess of current recommendations. It's important to point out the difference between refined salt (which is just processed sodium chloride with preservatives like sodium ferrocyanide, ammonium citrate, or aluminum citrate) and unrefined salt (which is balanced with many other essential elements). I don't believe any studies have factored that variable, particularly over time, but it's an important one.
@@jgrysiak6566 Meat and dairy dosen't clog arteries. You're probably reffering to the staurated fat myth wich has been disproven by randomized controll trials.
I've seen a study where you were better off overconsuming salt than consuming how much WHO reccomands wich is quite funny. But i got a question, are these trace minerals that you get from unrefined salts like the pink himalayan salt like not found in any other food? at least some of them? Or refined salt is only bad due to these preservatives?
@@lovely7983 Everything you've said is false. The newest research is proving just the opposite. In fact your liver produces the vast majority of cholesterol in your body. You are quoting big pharma's lies to promote the use of statins. Do more up to date research; check out Dr.Ken Berry's youtube channel.
I have a friend that is 70 years old and in amazing physical condition (he's a farmer who is continuously moving/working all day long). He began having serious health problems. His immediate family consists of all female Doctors, Nurses, and healthcare workers. For months he has been on a strict low/no salt diet enforced by his wife and daughters. He almost died and when a different doctor checked his blood, he was perfectly normal except he was seriously deficient in salt. A few meals with a normal amount of salt and he's back out in the fields, pounding fence posts into the ground by hand...
There are a few doctors, researchers and others on RUclips that I feel have personally given me a better quality of life, if not saved it. I have learned so much from watching and listening to those people. Dr. Fung is one of them. Thank you.
Just as the demonization of saturated fats has now stopped. the demonization of salt must stop too. Both saturated fats and salt are very valuable to good health.
2 things I'm having a tough time with. 1) getting my dad to believe salt isn't bad for you, if you just salt-to-taste. and 2) getting my mother to understand that saturated fats are not to be feared, but processed oils and fats (Crisco) are.
@@jodyjackson5475 lol. I bought some lard and fried some deer steaks and am making a pie using it for Christmas. My mother ate the deer steak so that's progress I guess.
@@cswann8 set yourself up a dedicated tallow pot. Tallow tastes even better, doesn’t flash as easily, and is generally less expensive than pre-rendered lard, if you render the tallow from suet, yourself. Just make sure your lid fits your dedicated pot perfectly for when you store it. It’s basically shelf stable indefinitely as long as you keep it covered when you aren’t cooking with it.
You will probably NEVER convince anybody of anything. My Mom is 92 and I wouldn't even try. She would physically GAG if she even tried to eat fat anyway. She is taking two BP meds and one super expensive drug for Afib. I have made my peace with it. I try to encourage her to at least eat more protein but invariably she just eats yogurt, toast and macaroni type foods. She is not much overweight though anymore because her appetite is slight these days.
I told my doctor I quit taking statins, he warned against this. I told him I got this. Continued to exercise and eat right. Last visit my LDL was 69, and my Blood pressure was 117/65. He didn't want to talk about it. LOL
Exactly! But not funny for all those who follow the advice influenced by Big Pharma. Statins and anti hypertensive drugs are multibillion dollar business. Best wishes.
Dr fung..i gotta say, you are bringing so much enlightenment and clarity to such a dark and confused world. Much respect! As a nurse, i would love to work with you.
Two years ago, my BP was 200+/120+. It was so bad that I felt dizzy. After listening to RUclips videos such as this one, my BP is now about 110/70, and I am on no medication. So, due to my personal experience my high BP was due to high sugar/carb and processed food. Now, I am about 40 pounds lighter and I am able to run 10km at a pace of < 10 minutes/mile pace 2 yesterday. And I prepared for the run by taking 1 teaspoon of salt and as much coffee as I could stomach. BTW, I am sure your mileage and pace will vary.
@@HeritageWealthPlanning Yeah, when I started my journey this March, I was just hoping to do something about all those diabetic symptoms I was having. Here are a few of them: sores that will not heal, tingling sensation in my toes, and eczema. I was pleasantly surprised when my high blood pressure and my grass pollen allergy went away as well. Most reversals were observed within 3 months. After 9 months I am almost symptoms free. However, I am convinced that if I were to revert to eating badly again, I will be sick again in no time. Yep, there is really no going back to my old way of eating. Carb is an addiction, reverting is so easy. I credit Dr. Fung for most of my progress.
Congratulations! By reducing processed foods you are dramatically reducing your sodium intake. So now you can add salt for taste reasons. Love the joke about "your milage and pace will vary". The caffeine in the coffee is a performance enhancing drug banned in many sports.
Thank you for this video. This gives me peace of mind. I am on high blood pressure medication. I have always monitored my salt intake. I have started intermittent fasting. During my research on intermittent fasting, I learned the importance of electrolytes. I can eat my pickles now without any guilt.
Check the active ingredient in your medication. If it contains potassium, the potassium is balancing the effect of excess sodium in the body. The gherkins are healthy and the vinegar also helps moderate endothelial function. Sure electrolytes are essential and you are getting all you need. Best wishes.
This is a huge issue, as salt helps us retain our magnesium and potassium. In addition, the amount of carbohydrates we eat seems to also come into play, so for those of us eating low carb, we're more likely to need more salt.
Thanks for your comment..... as I've stuffed everything up, my doc also said, low salt and change diet due to high blood pressure, cholesterol. It's all b.s. so I'm back listening to learn and start over....
@@7hilladelphia Yeah, cholesterol is another one of those places where the thinking of the past 70 years has been unhelpful. You wouldn't know, by listening to them, that higher LDL cholesterol (I think the peak is 190, for t his) is associated with longer life expectancy.
After I stopped eating added salt, I lost weight, my inflammation went away as well as my joint stiffness, back pain, and puffy face. When I have some salt again, it all comes back. That’s the ONLY “study” I need.
True that you need to do what’s works for you, however, if one is on a high carb diet the body will hold onto water and salt causing some of the symptoms mentioned. Insulin increases renal sodium reabsorption by acting on its receptors that are present throughout the renal tubule, leading to sodium retention and volume expansion.
For almost 25 years I've had high Blood pressure, fatigue, anxiety etc usually BP is around 180 to 190 and no diet worked, however I recently discovered if a restrict my salt and fat to almost zero and eat mainly potatoes, rice, dried fruits and real fruits it would produce dramatic health improvements. I can report a miracle..my BP from the nurse registered at 130 , my energy is amazing and my waist was measured at 28 inches, my weight is 11 stones and 7 pounds , my body fat is 20 ...all this is astonishing and is on my medical records..I will continue to eat low salt and fat indefinitely.. I feel like a teenager....I believe genetics play a part too ...
Yes. He's too smart for most people to truly appreciate. Americans generally dislike intelligent people. If you don't believe me, look at all of our elected officials. Especially presidents
I read a metastudy that came out recently, covering over 40 years and something like 600,000 individuals. The conclusion was that mortality from all causes was _higher_ on low salt diets than with moderate salt intake. (And all the biochemists are like... well, yeah.) Mortality was also higher on high-salt diets. But mortality was lowest when salt intake was between 2000mg and 3000mg per day... about what people normally consume when left to their own devices. The mortality curve was gradual for low-salt diets, and steep for high-salt diets. What's critical appears to be sodium-potassium balance. Take a once-daily OTC potassium supplement, consume normal salt, and your BP will typically drop by up to 40 points. This is probably why "salt substitutes" (typically potassium chloride) appear to have a positive effect of reducing BP, which is misinterpreted as "reducing salt intake lowers BP".
Well done! Notice the good doctor ignores potassium completely. A red flag for me. We have not evolved to need added sodium to the extent found in processed foods. But double blind studies show the cause and effect of sodium on blood pressure and for that matter potassium. Potassium is extremely high in black table pepper,. Put that back on your table. Best wishes.
It's dependent on the form of salt. I get horrible high blood pressure when I consume morton's or other processed salts. I'm fine w/ real sea salt & pink himalayan salt. It's always best to listen to your body rather than rely on studies.
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 No, I don't take any medication for anything, & I'm 45 yrs old. I keep a food diary, & pay attention to how I feel after eating certain things (food is my medicine). Ten years ago I had a reading of 140/135. I felt awful. I discovered that eliminating mortons iodized table salt, & canned/processed foods high in sodium helped tremendously. I've also eliminated lots of other junk that was in my diet, & that helped too, but if I eat something w/ mortons salt on it or too much high sodium in processed food I'll get a headache & my blood pressure starts to creep up.
@@sugarpie5613 Good Night Nurse!!😲 That bottom number of 135 is stroke-out level!! Oh, I totally agree with you about consuming high sodium canned or processed foods! Then there's so much other garbage in those products as well such as the preservatives, flavorings, ect!#UGH Didn't know that eating Morton's table salt was that drastic in raising blood pressure!? #WOW. I bought some sea salt recently and will try to start using that instead!! And Thank You for answering back!☺
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 Yes, the nurse who took my blood pressure said if it'd been just a couple points higher she would have admitted me to the ER. I do think there were other factors at play also contributing to my high blood pressure, because I hadn't yet embarked on cleaning up my diet, but the low quality salt only made things worse. Redmond Real Salt is a good brand. It is not fortified w/ iodine, but you can get your iodine from seafood, seaweed, or supplement. I personally like Mary Ruths nascent iodine drops.
Soooo true! And yet, doctors are still advising less and less salt. Salt is so good, important and needed that in ancient times, they used to pay people and trade for salt. That's where the saying "Not worth his weight in salt" comes from.😊 Thanks for posting these great videos!
@@jgrysiak6566Interesting point. I have to say, that I don't crave sugar anymore (thankfully) but I do salt. I've learned how terrible sugar is for us. Don't need it, don't want it 😊
@@jgrysiak6566 LOL you are so wrong. Sugar and starch (which becomes sugar after entering your body anyway) cause high blood pressure, heart diseases, type 2 diabetes. I learned it the hard way. Salt, on the other hand, is healthy.
Also, elephants will travel very long distances to get to the salt licks. They do it bc it's vital to keep them Alive. Nature has programmed their instincts to seek this vital mineral.
Great information that we would NEVER get from our doctors! I DO believe that salt (in and of itself) is not harmful for blood pressure, but I wish you would speak on the other effect salt is blamed for, and that’s water retention (which results in noticeable swelling of extremities). I DO believe this happens for many people because I’ve seen it in myself (and others) for decades. I know there is an association….at least for me. So even though salt itself doesn’t cause a rise in blood pressure, does the resulting water retention and swelling of extremities cause an increase in blood pressure? I suspect it does, for me, so wouldn’t it still be correct to say that salt increases blood pressure INDIRECTLY through the water retention it causes in so many? Thank you for all your straight talk videos and telling us the truth about things. I would love to hear your thoughts on all things Covid related, and know millions of others would, too. We need to know what the truth is, and everyone trusts you and your opinions. I know you’re probably too smart to open such a can of worms! 😏😂 But we sure would be grateful if you would touch on some things that are true and false that we’re being told. Thanks for all you are doing for humanity! ❤️
I have read but check it please that salt intake may be monitored only for one out of three with high blood pressure; this one out of three has deficient kidneys: you could search for a good nephrologist to check your kidneys?
@@edwigcarol4888 I was going to suggest the same thing. I think folks with issues about bloating/water retention could have a problem with their kidney function? I went thru several weeks of aggressive chemotherapy and we were checked weekly thru blood tests for any kidney damage. And they always checked to make sure our hands and/or feet and ankles were not showing signs of swelling!!😉 Edited this to add that my first ever signs of HBP were when I had started on the Chemo.
Thank you for talking about this Dr. Fung. I recently had hyponatremia- low salt levels. The doctors I’ve seen still tell me to lower my salt intake to lower my BP. Sometimes you have to ignore the advice.
My endocrinologist gave me the sack and told me not to come back. Because I said I took salt tablets when I feel sick. That makes me feel better immediately. But he called me non-compliant and got furious with me. Hyponatraemia. What a dinosaur!
I remember we were walking in the Pyrenees. One day our legs became rubbery and we couldn't walk further, still had miles to go. My gf and I took glucose, but that wasn't helpful. Then I remembered I'd brought salt pills with me. Ten minutes later we went again, effortlessly 👫
Listen to Jason. For me, salt has been absolutely critical in my journey. A hot cup of chicken bullion in the evening is what gets me to bed without craving food. Some people just nibble on little pebble of pink salt.
Interestingly enough I've always thought it's weird that for my horses and very active dog (and my cats to some extent)- that adding salt to their diet is very important but in people you were supposed to remove salt- that always made little sense to me
@erin mccardell, great observations. And how salt was widely traded in the past because it was so important to peoples' health. We can learn a lot about what is important to our health by paying attention to what horses need. I think more research has gone into horse nutrition because of horse racing, and the amount of money people spend on racehorses. Lots of discussion about selenium levels, manganese, etc for horses, and you can barely find studies for human nutrition. Stay curious.
I agree! We ALWAYS HAD SALT BLOCKS available for the horses. They seem to naturals know how much they need. Same for elephants btw. I eat iodized salt as a seasoning. So not large amts. But my mom had us eat a pinch or so of salt in hot weather for headaches. And that helped. Probably from what we lost sweating.
No medical professional following the recommendations was ever saying to eat no salt... civilizations were built on top of salt deposits, etc. etc. The advice was just saying to avoid too much, because blood pressure. It's just that they seemingly missed the body's diuretic effect where if there's too much salt in that situation, you just pee it out and you're good again. I think the biggest thing is that it's so simple and intuitive, so no one really questioned it or researched it properly.
Salt (sodium actually) is very rare (in low amounts) in natural foods. Even so, in the wild, animals eat a wider variety of feed. They don't have doctors or nutritionists. Your dog's food is most likely high in sodium, check the label. Sodium is an essential element, we simply get too much from our processed foods, including our pets! Best wishes.
Dr. Jason, I discovered this video today. As a person who fasts regularly and maintains a wholesome nutritious diet, I've discovered for myself that if I restrict my salt intake it triggers excessive cravings for chips and cookies. However when I have a proper balance of salt and fat in my my daily meals I do not binge eat or crave processed foods. So, from my own personal experience I agree with what you say in your video.
I believe what Dr. Fung said. I started taking less salt many years ago when I hear from people with high blood pressure that their doctor asked them not to take salt. I began to feel tired and feeling dizzy and weak all the time. I have fallen many times .Then a girl friend of mine told me to take salt. Ever since then I feel good and not dizzy any more. Dr. Fung thank you for educating us. You are so kind and sincere and caring. God bless you always.
@@jgrysiak6566 Thanks for sharing this information. Will check those two stores . Do you only use the Himalayan pink salt only in food or you put some in water to drink too as some people do?
I'm the same, very low salt and feeling tired and dizzy, added 2g salt and feel so much more energy, but I'm trying to figure out how much I should add, how much did you add? Im OMAD KETO
My blood pressure isn’t bad but has gone up some recently. I mentioned it to my cardiologist last week. He told me that decreasing salt intake was important. I’m in Japan. 😞
Am a salt-aholic & when I used to see my PCP, he’d say you ‘need to cut down on salt’. I’d respond that ‘it’s white coat hypertension’, because I monitor my BP at home & it’s fine (I have an aversion to doctors for very substantial reasons). He’d answer ‘I’m not wearing a white coat’. Needless to say I don’t see any physician unless absolutely necessary & do not participate in the customary managed care medical practices; seems like their findings are antiquated.
Human is the only animal species who is obsessed with constantly monitoring their physiological functions to convince themselves they are fine "medically". It is really sad though. Other living species on the earth, meanwhile, just get on with life and enjoy what God has delivered to them. Except humans, other living creatures on this earth make peace with death while humans fight and deny death as inevitable event. May God guide us. Blessing to everyone.
@@nikkion2140 - Appreciate your perspective. 🙏🏻 We are conditioned to do so especially in the west; BIG PHARMA is everywhere. The managed care aspect seems to be one of ordering tests or referring to other practitioners in order to generate funds. The financial bottom line is all that seems to matter to most.
Another question to ask when looking at this research is about genetic differences between people that enable some to process salt differently than others. The people from the very isolated cultures, or even those in the Japanese studies when compared to me in the Midwest US, are genetically different, and slight variations can have a large impact on how the body responds.
I’m more confused than ever after reading the comments. lol The problem always is that for anybody that has great success with cutting out or adding anything to a diet is that we never get the whole picture from just one comment. Things like how old is the person, what has their diet been like for their whole life, does their family have any genetic strength or weakness for one thing or another, what foods are available in their region,etc. We just can’t get that kind of big picture view from comments or anecdotal evidence. I live in Japan, btw and my Japanese wife has great BP, while mine has been historically a bit high(in the recent few years when I’ve checked it). We eat the same dinner - she eats a light breakfast while I tend to not eat breakfast, and our lunches differ, and have been married and eaten like this for the past 15 years. For the past few years I have gone hard core on low carb consistently but there has been no perceivable improvement to BP. (Also I am at about 17% body fat) My Japanese doctor said to reduce salt. When trying to significantly increase potassium and decrease salt this resulted in a perceptible electrolyte imbalance and no decrease of BP. Also Keto and Carnivore diets did not really work for me either. So I’m just going to stick with a moderate, eat a bit of everything diet while continuing 16/8 Intermittent Fasting. I definitely will not be afraid of salt, but I won’t be piling it on either. I am so done with diets in general. I will definitely stay away from vegetable oils and sugar though - and when I do eat carbs I will be sure they are as pure as possible. For seafood, meat, butter, and cheese - I’ll eat small amounts of these every now and then - but again I have begun to understand the importance of variety and moderation. Hopefully this coupled with regular exercise will lead to a lower BP. Maybe my past failures to lower BP while on low carb were due to not enough salt- but frankly I am just tired of testing and confirming that right now. Maybe someday I’ll give it a shot.
It depends as some people are affected by salt and again if your in a diuretic and blood pressure meds you don’t want to negate the diuretic by adding salt. I’m very sensitive to salt and my blood pressure will go up fast. The real determining factor is to take you blood pressure and see if salt affects you. That’s the only true test.
Chiropractors ARE doctors. They just arent part of the allopathic version of doctor that the AMA / Big Health tries to convince us are the only ones. That isnt so.
My blood pressure has been high for years. This year it got dangerously high. (190/110) I changed my diet and removed sugar and processed foods (including seed oils.) I did NOT change my sea salt intake. My BP is now completely stably lower. (125-135/70)
The science is very well defined for me and I get my sodium and potassium tested several times a year. Most informed people know that it's the dose that makes the poison and that there's an optimum range for most things.
Thank you Dr. Fung. Adding to your comment about eating processed food & HTN, it’s also the consumption of ultra processed cheap salt lacking other important minerals. Can you please provide the references to the other graphs you depicted. Thank you.
The Swedish website for healthcare has an article about reducing salt, but mentions further down in the text that they recommend reducing salt intake to 6 grams per day. It made me realize two years ago that I had suffered from a salt deficiency all my life. Now I salt 1-2 grams extra per day, which has given me normal blood pressure (before it was too low) and I avoid cramps in the calves.
Very interesting!!! That's all I've ever heard my whole entire 66 years of my life is to reduce or stop using salt!!!!!!! Again, thank you Dr Fung for sharing your information on a highly argued subject!!!
Only because we have so much added to our modern processed food. Zero sodium is fatal. We can get enough from natural foods. Salt can then be added at the table, for taste only.
Thanks for that break down. I have been causally aware of the non negative effects of salt intake but your break down gives me more confidence. Very informative. I have an 80 year old mother in law on a very very low salt diet recommended by her doctor and she recently suffered quite serious (fortunately non fatal) cardiac issue which I am sure are down to her low salt intake. It's impossible to convince people. Her grand-daughter (my wife's daughter) is studying to be a surgeon and is insistent that salt is a killer based on her medical studies.
The medical curriculum is designed to train "doctors" to sell pharma products. They no longer teach doctors how to help people optimize their immune system to keep them healthy because there is ZERO profit in people staying healthy. 99% of the doctors get paid to keep people sick and to keep people taking drugs. There are literally a handful of doctors who truly care about keeping people healthy - without pharma intervention - such as Dr. Jason.
Thanks, a real eye opener. I lost 65lbs in the last 6 months via a low carb diet and intermittent fasting, and dramatically lowered my blood pressure. I was eating a very low salt diet before that…I suspect that eating real food including salt but very little sugar and other processed foods explains my experience.
I think the key is distinguishing between the salt food makers add in processed foods and you yourself adding natural salt (kosher, sea, Himalayan, etc) to homemade, natural, minimally processed meals and foods.
We have so much salt in our processed foods the food industry is worried they can not lower their levels and still get the addictive flavours they rely upon. So they have perpetuated this false debate. Zero sodium is fatal. Double blind studies show the immediate effects of altering sodium content in food. The red flag for me is the good doctor not mentioning the balancing effect of potassium. Potassium just happens to be in huge amounts in black table pepper. Bananas have pale levels in comparison.
I’ve struggled with hypertension for 20 yrs despite always being a healthy weight and consuming very little sodium. My former doctor used to scold me about reducing my sodium, even though time after time my sodium levels on my blood work would be flagged for being too low and there was no way I could further reduce it since i didn’t eat any processed food or add salt to my food. I recently read a study that showed that sodium levels that were too low were far worse for blood pressure than sodium levels that were too high and that one of the biggest contributing factors were diets low in other electrolytes, namely magnesium.
I know that there are biases in sceince and medicine, but I do definitely 100% notice a difference in blood pressure when I eat more sodium. I am talking 20 point difference top and bottom. Especially food with high sodium and a lot of preservatives. It may be unique to certain individuals and certain ethnicities, as far as I know they have not accounted for that. So for me more sodium definitely means higher blood pressure.
Foods with high sodium are, by rule, very processed. Whole foods with added salt to flavor them probably would not react the same way to your body chemistry?🤔
Yes, you have done your own tests. Excellent. 4/5 persons can not handle the excessive amount of sodium in our processed foods. No problems eating natural foods!
Sodium is essential, chloride is essential therefore yes, salt (sodium chloride) is essential. Lowering sodium will do absolutely nothing to ameliorate high blood pressure (idiopathic hypertension), that is the result of high insulin and the Randle Cycle, i.e. chronically elevated blood glucose. Ameliorate it by not pouring carbohydrates down your neck.
@@TehKaiser , fish have cholesterol & saturated fat like an animal. Now they are swimming in dirty rivers, lakes, oceans, dirty farm raised pens, full of pollution & mercury. Check Dr. McDougall website for red light foods.
This is why I always recommend to people, to do a thorough analysis of the science, and then do the opposite. Scientists are paid to reach the outcome desired by their employer, and that outcome is always bad for humanity. Look to what they are trying to inject with, for example.
The same erroneous thinking, which falsely identified cholesterol as the cause of heart disease, is the same error in judgement that has demonized salt, and implicated it in high blood pressure. Like most maladies that afflict us, the causes are multi-factorial. Chances are, when a substance, which we have eaten in significant quantities for millennia, and which never caused problems, is all of a sudden vilified as the cause of a modern pervasion of disease, the person making the assertion is not looking at the broader context. Salt or cholesterol is not the problem. Its the metabolic milieu that weaponizes these benign and beneficial substances which is the problem.
A high sugar diet is what contributes to heart disease and high blood pressure. Fructose in the diet gets converted to triglycerides in the liver, and in time results in fatty liver, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and high blood pressure - a result of high systemic insulin needed to "force" cells to accept excessive blood sugar. Salt gets the blame for the blood pressure despite these facts. The whole "cholesterol is bad" propaganda fed billions of dollars into the pharma industry for decades as long as the patents on statins allowed big profits. Anyone who doesn't know this is at best uninformed, at worst a shill.
@@lovely7983 Lipoprotein are actually what is in plaque and it is through inflammation of the blood vessel lining that causes formation. Triglycerides/HDL has a stronger predictive value. The reason so-called plant based diets work is due to elimination of inflammatory foods common in most diets. The elimination is so extreme that while all the bad foods are eliminated, so are the foods the actually are not bad. Cholesterol is so well-regulated that eating more of it is entirely irrelevant to managing levels and thus eating meat will not harm homeostasis.
Thank you. I found that most low-salt diet patients had colon and liver cancers. Some have hypocalcemia and some have hypercalcemia. Increasing salt intake in the low-salt diet patients will do more harm until the mineral balance was restored.
Definitely improved my knowledge not only abiut the correlation between salt and high blood pressure if it exists anywat but ine of the tools of mera analysis how it spots an accuracy of a studies with this veey clarifying graph. Thats education. Thanks
When I went on a low carb diet I notice I frequently had to urinate but, I also needed salt because I had heart ❤️palpitations and I added Redmond sea salt. I felt better and once you stop eating unhealthy you will need extra salt.
In nature all foods are low in sodium, celery is an exception. Zero sodium intake is fatal. Yet, humans evolved well before the salt industry. Double blind controlled studies show the cause and effect of adding or removing excess sodium. I am more concerned about what other changes you have made to your diet that can cause heart palpitations. Get medical advice about your root cause. The sea salt makes sense as it is not only sodium chloride. You are getting some other electrolytes. Better isn' t best. Vegetables are low carbohydrate are you getting enough leafy greens?
Ok this is interesting…. Especially seeing as years ago my gut doctor ( I have crohns and no large intestine) and very specifically , my GI doctor from OHSU, said I would be able to eat more salt than normal and would need more than normal non crohns people Never really thought about it until seeing this
I remember learning that HBP was caused by salt and the proof being the example of the big population of Japanese men who ate a very salty soya sauce, etc., and had HBP.
Soy sauce and low Potassium/Magnesium. That data set was from a village in Japan where the majority of the diet was salty fish and rice with minimal fruits, vegetables or potatoes.
There’s no correlation between sodium intake and hypertension. It may raise blood pressure transiently, but as soon as a person pees out the additional water, their blood pressure will drop. Unless someone has Renal insufficiency OR Congestive Heart Failure, they don’t need to be concerned about their sodium (or salt) intake.
I've never really been a saltaholic, probably did try to cut back years ago, but just because I heard it was 'healthful' to do so. Anyways, my BP was getting up to 140/85 quite regularly. A couple of years ago, began keto, lost 20 pounds and blood pressure now is about 110/65. I have not substantially altered my salt intake at all. My wife had low blood pressure before she went keto. Almost too low. On keto, her blood pressure went up where mine is now. She has a struggle to maintain an electrolyte balance, or else hers really goes up. She has always liked a lot of salt, and still eats a lot of salt. My guess is that on keto, you are almost bound to lose out on potassium, because the potassium rich foods are also high carb. So we do eat some potato and banana or plantain to get potassium. It is impractical to supplement potassium as the pill form is 100 mg, and the daily RDA is 4700. I have no idea how well potassium gets recirculated but it must be different between my wife and I, because I don't have symptoms of electrolyte imbalance that she does.
The more salt you eat, the more your body excretes it, and with it goes other electrolytes as well. The body also has very efficient sodium conserving system. It can dump excess potassium without losing much sodium in the process, but not the other way around. IIRC aldosterone is the sodium sparing & potassium excreting hormone, if you care to have a look. I was carnivore for months with barely adding any salt to my food. Sometimes i took a small pinch of potassium. I mostly used those electrolytes when i was fasting for 24h or more, and even then in rather modest amounts, compared to the recommendations. I think that more important than how much you get certain nutrient (after a certain point), it might be more important in what ratio it comes in with it's "competing" counterpart, like sodium-potassium, magnesium-calcium, copper-zinc etc.
@@metheiam5714 Yes. And if anybody is taking an ACE inhibitor then be careful about potassium intake thru foods high in potassium. And do NOT use products that contain potassium such as NO SALT. It can quickly elevate your blood serum to very unsafe levels!! Best to always check with your pharmacist first!!😉
@@TehKaiser It does taste terrible. I'm glad I will Never have to use it!! I learned a quick and hard lesson. It made me feel absolutely horrible the very first day I added it! My head felt like it would explode from the pressure! Felt like I suddenly had an awful case of the Flu. Yup. I am on an ACE inhibitor for blood pressure.#YIKES And Nope, my doctor NEVER said a word about not adding any potassium. I figured it out quickly, as that was the Only thing I'd changed in my diet. I looked it up and sure enough,...it is very Contra-indicated!!😳
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 Potassium “soothes” while sodium “excites”. The ions interact with each other in cellular processes, balancing each other out. People had a strong a affinity for salt. That’s why gold was traded for salt in the past.
Unfortunately Americans too often think in extremes & dichotomies. Salt is important electrolyte. Quality of the salt and appropriate amount is what is the best. We each must look at the data and our own situation to determine the optimal amount. As with most things.
I found that when I stopped using table salt (i.e.: Morton's, etc) and started using unprocessed sea salt (Celtic, etc), my blood pressure dropped. That was 4yrs ago and it was the only change made (diet/lifestyle) at that time.
I consume quite a bit of salt but not the white powdery stuff in salt shakers. It's either sea salt or my preferance,Himalayan sea salt. My b/p is less than 120/80 and I'm a man in his mid fifties
There is an excellent book about this called "the salt fix" Its better to have too much than too little. 5 to 6 grams (1 teaspoon) is the best amount unless you are sensitive to salt.
@@jgrysiak6566 I'm not sure it matters where the salt is as long as you get sufficient. It may taste stronger on the outside. The book the salt fix explains how the recommendations to cut salt were based on poor biased science as is so much in nutrition.
4 months ago I was diagnosed with hypertension with a BP of 153/103 at doctor's office. As of today, I've lost almost 30 pounds and my blood pressure is close to normal. I also no longer snore. I attribute this to the weigh loss and exercise and not so much the
You are averaging almost 2lbs a week- more initially I am sure in that first month. Be very careful. You can lose a gallbladder that way- usually if over 2lbs. I did.
Does the salt matter? I mean like white table salt vs. pink salt or Real salt brand from the Salt Lake. I have heard the white table salt is bleached and not all that great for us. I actually prefer the taste of the Pink Himalayan salt.
I have high blood but i do not also follow low sodium diet and i do not even take high blood medication after watching another RUclips video i feel a lot better now for the advises treated the cause not the symptoms at far less cost without side effect, lastly Asian diet are usually salty reason Mc Donald is not so popular with original US recipe
Very interesting video and it would be nice if you make a video about the more salt intake with low carb diets. Thank you very much for your great work and greetings from France /Alsace
Je suis de France et c'est difficile pour moi de comprendre ce qu'il dit même avec le traducteur parfois incompréhensible , faut il manger salé ou pas contre hypertension SVP ?
Yet most doctors still recommend low salt diet for high blood pressure. Very similar to recommending patents stay away from high cholesterol foods (butter, eggs, bacon) to lower cholesterol. Salt mainly helps the body balance water retention (and if course balance other minerals). As I have heard, you don’t sweat water, you sweat salt which then draws water out.
I have thought that this might be the case. Since learning that the food pyramid was a fraud, I’ve questioned all of these pearls of “wisdom” that are supported by big organizations or government. Thank you, again, Doctor Fung.
Yes, the food pyramid was invented by the Agricultural board, and many things are incorrect, in fact deliberately misrepresented. However, double blind randomised trials show that adding or removing excess sodium from food has cause and effect. Zero sodium (table salt is sodium chloride) in a diet is fatal. Processed foods all have added sodium. Finding the balance is the key. Start by checking food labels, reduce foods high in sodium. Eat whole foods to replace them and add salt if you must, only for taste. Check your own blood pressure at home. Best wishes.
Very interesting! Now I'm left with wondering, who would have an interest in those biassed test... Who would benefit from people eating less/being scared of salt?
Great minds think alike, I guess?😜 But seriously that's the same thing I am wondering about!? I can understand if Coca-cola puts out a biased test showing no negative findings with consuming coke. They are protecting their product sales. I mean, it's Wrong and unethical but I get Why they would do that. But who is behind this biased report on Salt. What is the Motive? Hmmm?🤔
There are so many questions.. Why is the advised maximum intake of vitamin D3 20 mcg (x40 = 800 international units), while a young person wearing short sleeves in summertime produces 10,000-15,000 units in 30 minutes? Over 40% of people are D3 deficient. D3 plays a role in over 1000 biochemical reactions in your body! Why is selling Borax in many counties forbidden, because it is very dangerous? (It's toxicity is comparable with that of salt and small amounts daily make your arthritis go away). Why is Iodine only safe in small amounts (145 mcg per day) while traditional Japanese get 1000-3000 mcg per day, and breast cancer there is 10 times lower than in USA? Why should we get 60 mcg vit C per day, while most animals produce their own vit C in their liver, a goat in stress produces the equal of tens of grams per day? Why are people prescribed statins when their cholesterol is high? "High" has been lowered over the years. It even was proposed to add it to drinking water 😁. Cholesterol is essential in your body. Statins may increase diabetes 2 numbers, cause liver disease, muscle pain, headaches, diarrhea, reduces CoQ10, which is essential for energy production in cells.. It also generates enormous cash flows for big pharmaceutical companies. Follow 💵 💰?
@@rredding Yup. Just follow the money trail. I would Never take a statin. They are Toxic poisons on steriods! My doctor tried putting me on them a few years ago. I said Nope. Got serious with educating myself about nutrition and things quickly turned around in that area as well as all other health issue areas. And this is after recovering from cancer and very toxic aggressive chemo to fight it!!😉 #YAY! Peace Out!💙💙💙
The answer is the opposite. The food industry's cheapest flavour enhancers and preservatives are sodium salts. They do not want to lower the sodium in their highly processed and otherwise, bland foods. Salt, fat, sugar are not found in such high concentrations in whole foods. They are perfectly combined by food scientists to be addictive. Big pharma does not want people to go off anti-hypertensive drugs this is a multibillion dollar market. The patients are on these drugs for years, not cured, but treated. Don't be scared of sodium. Zero sodium is fatal. Processed foods when eaten in combination have too much sodium for the average person's kidneys to excrete without the related loss of endothelial function, increased blood pressure and water retention. Best wishes.
Learn more about "The Dangers of Processed Foods" in this video - ruclips.net/video/FPfE-D_53uU/видео.html
Sea salt and other natuRal salt's but not them chemical salt's all-oveR out there,...... blessed day
Being retired and reading all week long on optimum health for years, I have studied the recommendations of 40-50 docs. This MD is the one I have come to trust the most. His books literally saved my life.
I completely agree with you. I’m also retired and doing what has been suggested by Dr Fung. I now feel like a 24 year old. Fasting has changed my approach on life. I only wish I did this years ago. Wish you well.
@@tomallen8296 Same here. Wish you well too.
Good for you guys! I too have changed my lifestyle completely based on Dr. Fung and I feel fantastic!
@@WookieLove1 Excellent. I'm glad I am in the same winners club with you.
@@WookieLove1 Well done.
9 months after I started a keto diet my blood pressure dropped from 140/90 down to 90/68 over a period of two weeks. It has since come back up a little to 110/70 and stayed there for the last 7 years. In my experience not eating large amounts of sugar and starch has an enormously larger effect on blood pressure than salt does.
That's awesome!! Did/do you take medications for your HBP?
Same for me. 2 years on keto, and my blood pressure is perfect. And, I eat much more salt now. Salt is good for body, it will get rid from excess of it easily. Low salt is dangerous.
Same for me. My blood pressure is also around 110/70, eating as much salt as I feel like. Low carb for 3.5 years
@@mav5701 My doctor was on the verge of telling me to go on them, but I went on the diet, and it got rid of pre-diabetes within a month, and I figured the hbp would go too, and it did.
Same experience not only have i followed a very low carb diet for 3 years now but i increased my salt intake dramatically (i was before a low salt nerd) having learned that we lose a lot of salt in the urine when the insuline level is low. Insuline has a renal effect..
Thank you for exposing the bias in medical research. Just me, but I have been eating lots of salt and I have lower blood pressure than I have ever had. I cut out carbs and processed foods, and have been intermittent fasting. The results are amazing!
Me too
Salt 👍… sodium byproducts in processed foods 😣👎
I absolutely pound salt on a daily basis and my bp is low.
Eat lotsa whole food carbs like fruit, vegetables, potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, whole grains & beans
Same here, but my blood pressure is on the high side. Always has been.
Salt is the most natural mineral to consume. We need salt for electrolytes, and normalisation of blood pressure and other blood markers. 🤓
Whatever big pharma or big food point to as bad, just do the opposite 😃
Your last statement about big pharma & food companies is deep👍👍
One of the very many lies we've been told. At one stage, when doing lots of physical work in the heat I had to take salt tablets on top of hving lots of salt to stop muscles cramping up. Yes I know lack of magnesium causes muscles knotting up, but salt stop them cramping up 😊
@@brucethomson3512 What kind of salt do you use?
Eggs salt meat coffee butter bacon etc bad for you. They lied.
We need more doctors like Dr Fung. Thank you!
he knows about fasting but not this..
Big pharma would go bankrupt😂😂😂 they need you on pills
I have much confident in Dr Jason Fung than
My own medical doctors
Being retired and reading all week long on optimum health for years, I have studied the recommendations of 40-50 docs. This MD is the one I have come to trust the most. His books literally saved my life.
Luckily I don't have that problem, everything I mention to him I pickup here or berg my doc usually agrees or admits he doesn't know and on the spot opens his laptop and researches it and forms a opinion, I got lucky when I found him ✌
Really? Does your Doctor have a Disclaimer at his website like Fung does?
@@TELEVISIONARCHIVES elaborate
@@HeritageWealthPlanning he/she can’t. Just an embarrassing troll. I’ve been learning from fung, berg, ekberg. Lost 30 lbs in 4 months. No meds. Feel great. This troll would rather u be on meds for bp, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. As long as u see a “real” dr, lol. The egomaniacal mind is a terrible thing, haha. Peace.
Few years ago i stopped adding salt to my food because some guy said it was bad for health. First three days my muscles would and joints could barely move and I had pains trying to bend my arms. After a week my body adapted but now i started getting heart palpitations and chest pains, it took me several months to figure out it was the lack of salts that was causing this, when i finally started adding salt again my heart palpitations and chest pains went away..
Salt is essentiel for my wellbeing 🙏
did you take average iodized salt?
Went on a clean diet 3-4 years ago, only just switched to keto adding salt and red meat back, feel alive again
Using Dr. Fung’s methods I’ve lost 95 lbs since January 2021. I can’t believe how much his lectures and videos helped change my life, it’s incredible. Thanks for posting these videos Dr. They keep me motivated to stay the course in changing my life and being a healthy person.
Good for you friend, spread the word.
Rapid weight loss- more then 2lbs a week is very dangerous. You can lose your gallbladder. I did. You "might" be ok. The math shows that you "averaged" ~1.61 lbs. a week. Though in the beginning I bet you lost much more rapidly. That is where you run into a problem. Since it's been ~3 years, you might have gotten lucky. Never use mouthwash.
@@MOAB-UT
If you have a lot to lose plus you're eating and supplementing correctly it's fine, especially if you excersize as well.
Mouthwash is fine too.. depending the mouth wash.
How are you today Solomon?
@@OceanFrontVilla3 I disagree with everything you said. I did lose 50lbs. and a Gallbladder. Now I cannot gain weight- a little too skinny. All mouthwash inhibits NO production so very bad.
Happy Sunday & happy holidays , Dr. Fung and to everyone watching . Stay happy , healthy , wealthy and wise . 🎀🤍🌸
And salty!!! Thanks same to you!!!
@@Jbr673 🤍
And free!
Sunday a week later, but happy Sunday regardless! Now I'm craving salt!
Nice to see a nephrologist take this on. A study did show an upper intake of 12,000mg (~3.5 teaspoons) of salt per day increased mortality due to heart disease. The "middle ground" allows for safe and beneficial intake in excess of current recommendations. It's important to point out the difference between refined salt (which is just processed sodium chloride with preservatives like sodium ferrocyanide, ammonium citrate, or aluminum citrate) and unrefined salt (which is balanced with many other essential elements). I don't believe any studies have factored that variable, particularly over time, but it's an important one.
It's not the salt, it's eating animals, birds, fish, dairy products & oil clogging arteries & causing heart disease, cancer & high blood pressure.
@@jgrysiak6566 Meat and dairy dosen't clog arteries. You're probably reffering to the staurated fat myth wich has been disproven by randomized controll trials.
@@loganwolv3393 , oh yes it does. Check Dr. McDougall's website. He has articles & videos.
I've seen a study where you were better off overconsuming salt than consuming how much WHO reccomands wich is quite funny. But i got a question, are these trace minerals that you get from unrefined salts like the pink himalayan salt like not found in any other food? at least some of them? Or refined salt is only bad due to these preservatives?
@@lovely7983 Everything you've said is false. The newest research is proving just the opposite. In fact your liver produces the vast majority of cholesterol in your body. You are quoting big pharma's lies to promote the use of statins. Do more up to date research; check out Dr.Ken Berry's youtube channel.
I have a friend that is 70 years old and in amazing physical condition (he's a farmer who is continuously moving/working all day long). He began having serious health problems. His immediate family consists of all female Doctors, Nurses, and healthcare workers. For months he has been on a strict low/no salt diet enforced by his wife and daughters. He almost died and when a different doctor checked his blood, he was perfectly normal except he was seriously deficient in salt. A few meals with a normal amount of salt and he's back out in the fields, pounding fence posts into the ground by hand...
yea right. aint salt what makes animals go crazy? its just fact that every living being needs salt
There are a few doctors, researchers and others on RUclips that I feel have personally given me a better quality of life, if not saved it. I have learned so much from watching and listening to those people. Dr. Fung is one of them. Thank you.
Just as the demonization of saturated fats has now stopped. the demonization of salt must stop too. Both saturated fats and salt are very valuable to good health.
I still see articles online all the time demonizing saturated fat, so it has not stopped completely.
The demonization of saturated fats hasn't stopped sadly, most average people fear saturated fats as If they were satan itself
@@soulofexistence 😂😂😂😂😂 the satan part!!!
@@lloydhlavac6807 True - the demonization continues unabated!
The saturated fat screwballs will never stop. It's a religion.
2 things I'm having a tough time with. 1) getting my dad to believe salt isn't bad for you, if you just salt-to-taste. and 2) getting my mother to understand that saturated fats are not to be feared, but processed oils and fats (Crisco) are.
Crisco is great!! For making candles during a power outage…..
@@jodyjackson5475 lol. I bought some lard and fried some deer steaks and am making a pie using it for Christmas. My mother ate the deer steak so that's progress I guess.
@@cswann8 set yourself up a dedicated tallow pot. Tallow tastes even better, doesn’t flash as easily, and is generally less expensive than pre-rendered lard, if you render the tallow from suet, yourself. Just make sure your lid fits your dedicated pot perfectly for when you store it. It’s basically shelf stable indefinitely as long as you keep it covered when you aren’t cooking with it.
im having the exact same problem.
You will probably NEVER convince anybody of anything. My Mom is 92 and I wouldn't even try. She would physically GAG if she even tried to eat fat anyway. She is taking two BP meds and one super expensive drug for Afib. I have made my peace with it. I try to encourage her to at least eat more protein but invariably she just eats yogurt, toast and macaroni type foods. She is not much overweight though anymore because her appetite is slight these days.
I told my doctor I quit taking statins, he warned against this. I told him I got this. Continued to exercise and eat right. Last visit my LDL was 69, and my Blood pressure was 117/65. He didn't want to talk about it. LOL
Exactly! But not funny for all those who follow the advice influenced by Big Pharma. Statins and anti hypertensive drugs are multibillion dollar business. Best wishes.
Lol 😂
Me same thing
69LDL is too low
More importantly than LDL, what's your Coronary calcium? Fasting insulin (not just glucose)? Those are huge markers that you need to know
Dr fung..i gotta say, you are bringing so much enlightenment and clarity to such a dark and confused world. Much respect! As a nurse, i would love to work with you.
Two years ago, my BP was 200+/120+. It was so bad that I felt dizzy. After listening to RUclips videos such as this one, my BP is now about 110/70, and I am on no medication. So, due to my personal experience my high BP was due to high sugar/carb and processed food. Now, I am about 40 pounds lighter and I am able to run 10km at a pace of < 10 minutes/mile pace 2 yesterday. And I prepared for the run by taking 1 teaspoon of salt and as much coffee as I could stomach. BTW, I am sure your mileage and pace will vary.
That’s amazing!
@@HeritageWealthPlanning Yeah, when I started my journey this March, I was just hoping to do something about all those diabetic symptoms I was having. Here are a few of them: sores that will not heal, tingling sensation in my toes, and eczema. I was pleasantly surprised when my high blood pressure and my grass pollen allergy went away as well. Most reversals were observed within 3 months. After 9 months I am almost symptoms free. However, I am convinced that if I were to revert to eating badly again, I will be sick again in no time. Yep, there is really no going back to my old way of eating. Carb is an addiction, reverting is so easy. I credit Dr. Fung for most of my progress.
Congratulations! By reducing processed foods you are dramatically reducing your sodium intake. So now you can add salt for taste reasons. Love the joke about "your milage and pace will vary". The caffeine in the coffee is a performance enhancing drug banned in many sports.
Fasting and eating low carb dropped my BP within days!
You have the discipline to better yourself health wise and that is more valuable than any material thing a person can posses.
Thank you for this video. This gives me peace of mind. I am on high blood pressure medication. I have always monitored my salt intake. I have started intermittent fasting. During my research on intermittent fasting, I learned the importance of electrolytes. I can eat my pickles now without any guilt.
Check the active ingredient in your medication. If it contains potassium, the potassium is balancing the effect of excess sodium in the body. The gherkins are healthy and the vinegar also helps moderate endothelial function. Sure electrolytes are essential and you are getting all you need. Best wishes.
@@aclassmedicine3306 Thanks!!
Vit D3 and K2 solved my hypertension problem in a few weeks. No diuretics needed. Try, you have nothing to lose.
This is a huge issue, as salt helps us retain our magnesium and potassium. In addition, the amount of carbohydrates we eat seems to also come into play, so for those of us eating low carb, we're more likely to need more salt.
Thanks for your comment..... as I've stuffed everything up, my doc also said, low salt and change diet due to high blood pressure, cholesterol. It's all b.s. so I'm back listening to learn and start over....
@@7hilladelphia Yeah, cholesterol is another one of those places where the thinking of the past 70 years has been unhelpful. You wouldn't know, by listening to them, that higher LDL cholesterol (I think the peak is 190, for t his) is associated with longer life expectancy.
@@CarbageMan Yes, as long as it's just the LDL that's high and NOT the VLDL or triglycerides.
It's all about Ratio.
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 The ratio of triglycerides to HDL is a good one, and neither is LDL, and none of which is actually cholesterol.
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 If you don't consume sugar or cabohydrate, you wouldn't even care about cholesterol, LDL or VLDL.
After I stopped eating added salt, I lost weight, my inflammation went away as well as my joint stiffness, back pain, and puffy face. When I have some salt again, it all comes back. That’s the ONLY “study” I need.
True that you need to do what’s works for you, however, if one is on a high carb diet the body will hold onto water and salt causing some of the symptoms mentioned. Insulin increases renal sodium reabsorption by acting on its receptors that are present throughout the renal tubule, leading to sodium retention and volume expansion.
Ah critical thinking skills 101! Well done Dr. Fung. Thank you.
He just breaks things down for the non-medical professional!❤
For almost 25 years I've had high Blood pressure, fatigue, anxiety etc usually BP is around 180 to 190 and no diet worked, however I recently discovered if a restrict my salt and fat to almost zero and eat mainly potatoes, rice, dried fruits and real fruits it would produce dramatic health improvements. I can report a miracle..my BP from the nurse registered at 130 , my energy is amazing and my waist was measured at 28 inches, my weight is 11 stones and 7 pounds , my body fat is 20 ...all this is astonishing and is on my medical records..I will continue to eat low salt and fat indefinitely.. I feel like a teenager....I believe genetics play a part too ...
The motto question everything is certainly proven here. Very well done.
Im so glad there are smart people like you to review such topics. Thank you.
This man is a genius
Yes. He's too smart for most people to truly appreciate. Americans generally dislike intelligent people. If you don't believe me, look at all of our elected officials. Especially presidents
I read a metastudy that came out recently, covering over 40 years and something like 600,000 individuals. The conclusion was that mortality from all causes was _higher_ on low salt diets than with moderate salt intake. (And all the biochemists are like... well, yeah.) Mortality was also higher on high-salt diets. But mortality was lowest when salt intake was between 2000mg and 3000mg per day... about what people normally consume when left to their own devices. The mortality curve was gradual for low-salt diets, and steep for high-salt diets.
What's critical appears to be sodium-potassium balance. Take a once-daily OTC potassium supplement, consume normal salt, and your BP will typically drop by up to 40 points. This is probably why "salt substitutes" (typically potassium chloride) appear to have a positive effect of reducing BP, which is misinterpreted as "reducing salt intake lowers BP".
Probably that was sodium intake?
Salt, sodium chloride, weighs 2.5x more than sodium. So, 4000 mg sodium is in 10000 mg salt.
@@rredding is the OP referring to 2000-3000 range for sodiumn or sodium chloride?
Well done! Notice the good doctor ignores potassium completely. A red flag for me. We have not evolved to need added sodium to the extent found in processed foods. But double blind studies show the cause and effect of sodium on blood pressure and for that matter potassium. Potassium is extremely high in black table pepper,. Put that back on your table. Best wishes.
@@aclassmedicine3306 Hmm. That may explain why certain people appear to crave pepper. (Those cravings usually mean something.)
Yes, indeed your are the most credible of all the reports that I have read in my 80 yrs. Thank!
It's dependent on the form of salt. I get horrible high blood pressure when I consume morton's or other processed salts. I'm fine w/ real sea salt & pink himalayan salt. It's always best to listen to your body rather than rely on studies.
Do you take BP medication? Also, what do you consider "horribly high"?🤔
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 No, I don't take any medication for anything, & I'm 45 yrs old. I keep a food diary, & pay attention to how I feel after eating certain things (food is my medicine). Ten years ago I had a reading of 140/135. I felt awful. I discovered that eliminating mortons iodized table salt, & canned/processed foods high in sodium helped tremendously. I've also eliminated lots of other junk that was in my diet, & that helped too, but if I eat something w/ mortons salt on it or too much high sodium in processed food I'll get a headache & my blood pressure starts to creep up.
@@sugarpie5613 Good Night Nurse!!😲 That bottom number of 135 is stroke-out level!!
Oh, I totally agree with you about consuming high sodium canned or processed foods! Then there's so much other garbage in those products as well such as the preservatives, flavorings, ect!#UGH
Didn't know that eating Morton's table salt was that drastic in raising blood pressure!? #WOW. I bought some sea salt recently and will try to start using that instead!! And Thank You for answering back!☺
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 Yes, the nurse who took my blood pressure said if it'd been just a couple points higher she would have admitted me to the ER. I do think there were other factors at play also contributing to my high blood pressure, because I hadn't yet embarked on cleaning up my diet, but the low quality salt only made things worse. Redmond Real Salt is a good brand. It is not fortified w/ iodine, but you can get your iodine from seafood, seaweed, or supplement. I personally like Mary Ruths nascent iodine drops.
@@sugarpie5613 interesting ab Morton’s . Definitely will nuke that from my diet
Soooo true! And yet, doctors are still advising less and less salt.
Salt is so good, important and needed that in ancient times, they used to pay people and trade for salt. That's where the saying "Not worth his weight in salt" comes from.😊
Thanks for posting these great videos!
Because we crave salt, sugar & starch. We are starchivores, not meat eaters. We don't have sharp fangs to tear & eat meat like cats
@@jgrysiak6566Interesting point. I have to say, that I don't crave sugar anymore (thankfully) but I do salt. I've learned how terrible sugar is for us. Don't need it, don't want it 😊
@@jgrysiak6566 LOL you are so wrong. Sugar and starch (which becomes sugar after entering your body anyway) cause high blood pressure, heart diseases, type 2 diabetes. I learned it the hard way. Salt, on the other hand, is healthy.
Also, elephants will travel very long distances to get to the salt licks. They do it bc it's vital to keep them Alive. Nature has programmed their instincts to seek this vital mineral.
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 Interesting! Thanks 😊
Thank you for all your helpful, informative videos. You give us news that we can really use! 👍❤️🙏
Great information that we would NEVER get from our doctors! I DO believe that salt (in and of itself) is not harmful for blood pressure, but I wish you would speak on the other effect salt is blamed for, and that’s water retention (which results in noticeable swelling of extremities). I DO believe this happens for many people because I’ve seen it in myself (and others) for decades. I know there is an association….at least for me. So even though salt itself doesn’t cause a rise in blood pressure, does the resulting water retention and swelling of extremities cause an increase in blood pressure? I suspect it does, for me, so wouldn’t it still be correct to say that salt increases blood pressure INDIRECTLY through the water retention it causes in so many?
Thank you for all your straight talk videos and telling us the truth about things. I would love to hear your thoughts on all things Covid related, and know millions of others would, too. We need to know what the truth is, and everyone trusts you and your opinions. I know you’re probably too smart to open such a can of worms! 😏😂 But we sure would be grateful if you would touch on some things that are true and false that we’re being told. Thanks for all you are doing for humanity! ❤️
An excellent resource is The Salt Fix by Dr. James DiNicolantonio.
@@swansuz:Resource for what?
@@pocopico7409 Information on how salt affects the human physiology!👍🧂
I have read but check it please that salt intake may be monitored only for one out of three with high blood pressure; this one out of three has deficient kidneys: you could search for a good nephrologist to check your kidneys?
@@edwigcarol4888 I was going to suggest the same thing. I think folks with issues about bloating/water retention could have a problem with their kidney function?
I went thru several weeks of aggressive chemotherapy and we were checked weekly thru blood tests for any kidney damage. And they always checked to make sure our hands and/or feet and ankles were not showing signs of swelling!!😉
Edited this to add that my first ever signs of HBP were when I had started on the Chemo.
Omg I have high blood pressure and I was looking advice from the right person
Thank you for talking about this Dr. Fung. I recently had hyponatremia- low salt levels. The doctors I’ve seen still tell me to lower my salt intake to lower my BP. Sometimes you have to ignore the advice.
Hyponatremia should be managed according to guidelines.
My endocrinologist gave me the sack and told me not to come back. Because I said I took salt tablets when I feel sick. That makes me feel better immediately. But he called me non-compliant and got furious with me. Hyponatraemia. What a dinosaur!
I remember we were walking in the Pyrenees. One day our legs became rubbery and we couldn't walk further, still had miles to go. My gf and I took glucose, but that wasn't helpful. Then I remembered I'd brought salt pills with me. Ten minutes later we went again, effortlessly 👫
Listen to Jason.
For me, salt has been absolutely critical in my journey.
A hot cup of chicken bullion in the evening is what gets me to bed without craving food.
Some people just nibble on little pebble of pink salt.
The salt in that makes me crave food.
You mean a hot cup of water with chicken bouillon helps one to sleep better?
In other words you're slowly destroying your kidneys
Interestingly enough I've always thought it's weird that for my horses and very active dog (and my cats to some extent)- that adding salt to their diet is very important but in people you were supposed to remove salt- that always made little sense to me
Interesting point you made. What reasons were you given to add salt dor horses and dog.? Thanks. God Bless.
@erin mccardell, great observations. And how salt was widely traded in the past because it was so important to peoples' health. We can learn a lot about what is important to our health by paying attention to what horses need. I think more research has gone into horse nutrition because of horse racing, and the amount of money people spend on racehorses. Lots of discussion about selenium levels, manganese, etc for horses, and you can barely find studies for human nutrition. Stay curious.
I agree! We ALWAYS HAD SALT BLOCKS available for the horses. They seem to naturals know how much they need. Same for elephants btw. I eat iodized salt as a seasoning. So not large amts. But my mom had us eat a pinch or so of salt in hot weather for headaches. And that helped. Probably from what we lost sweating.
No medical professional following the recommendations was ever saying to eat no salt... civilizations were built on top of salt deposits, etc. etc.
The advice was just saying to avoid too much, because blood pressure. It's just that they seemingly missed the body's diuretic effect where if there's too much salt in that situation, you just pee it out and you're good again. I think the biggest thing is that it's so simple and intuitive, so no one really questioned it or researched it properly.
Salt (sodium actually) is very rare (in low amounts) in natural foods. Even so, in the wild, animals eat a wider variety of feed. They don't have doctors or nutritionists. Your dog's food is most likely high in sodium, check the label. Sodium is an essential element, we simply get too much from our processed foods, including our pets! Best wishes.
Dr. Jason, I discovered this video today. As a person who fasts regularly and maintains a wholesome nutritious diet, I've discovered for myself that if I restrict my salt intake it triggers excessive cravings for chips and cookies. However when I have a proper balance of salt and fat in my my daily meals I do not binge eat or crave processed foods. So, from my own personal experience I agree with what you say in your video.
I believe what Dr. Fung said. I started taking less salt many years ago when I hear from people with high blood pressure that their doctor asked them not to take salt. I began to feel tired and feeling dizzy and weak all the time. I have fallen many times .Then a girl friend of mine told me to take salt. Ever since then I feel good and not dizzy any more. Dr. Fung thank you for educating us. You are so kind and sincere and caring. God bless you always.
Get a good Himalayan salt, (pink salt).. It is unrefined with 80 minerals. Dollar Tree & Big Lots have it
@@jgrysiak6566 Thanks for sharing this information. Will check those two stores . Do you only use the Himalayan pink salt only in food or you put some in water to drink too as some people do?
@nanapoku5259 , none in water, Dr. Mcdougall says to only salt the surface of your food as needed.
I'm the same, very low salt and feeling tired and dizzy, added 2g salt and feel so much more energy, but I'm trying to figure out how much I should add, how much did you add? Im OMAD KETO
@@percy9228 , salt helps with my depression & gives me a sense of well being.
U can salt as long as u drink lotsa water to wash it away
Thank you for this video! Saving lives!
Please go deeper into the salt intake debate! I've actually been eating extra salt lately, and I feel fantastic. Lol
'The Salt Fix'
Totally agree... I used to binge eating on sugary foods... my desire is spontaneusly gone after adding salt
Bless you from italy
@@boink800 I agree
@@boink800 Thank you!
How are you doing? Are you still eating more salt ? Your reply was from 2 years ago.
My blood pressure isn’t bad but has gone up some recently. I mentioned it to my cardiologist last week. He told me that decreasing salt intake was important. I’m in Japan. 😞
Am a salt-aholic & when I used to see my PCP, he’d say you ‘need to cut down on salt’. I’d respond that ‘it’s white coat hypertension’, because I monitor my BP at home & it’s fine (I have an aversion to doctors for very substantial reasons). He’d answer ‘I’m not wearing a white coat’. Needless to say I don’t see any physician unless absolutely necessary & do not participate in the customary managed care medical practices; seems like their findings are antiquated.
So true. I have always been my own best medical advice.
Human is the only animal species who is obsessed with constantly monitoring their physiological functions to convince themselves they are fine "medically".
It is really sad though. Other living species on the earth, meanwhile, just get on with life and enjoy what God has delivered to them.
Except humans, other living creatures on this earth make peace with death while humans fight and deny death as inevitable event.
May God guide us. Blessing to everyone.
@@nikkion2140 - Appreciate your perspective. 🙏🏻 We are conditioned to do so especially in the west; BIG PHARMA is everywhere. The managed care aspect seems to be one of ordering tests or referring to other practitioners in order to generate funds. The financial bottom line is all that seems to matter to most.
Congratulations on your self monitoring. Best wishes.
Yep, now that I’ve been carnivore and fasting last 3 years … I eat ALOT of salt ( Redmonds Real Salt )…. I have excellent health markers 😍
how many grams a day? I'm OMAD KETO thanks
Another question to ask when looking at this research is about genetic differences between people that enable some to process salt differently than others. The people from the very isolated cultures, or even those in the Japanese studies when compared to me in the Midwest US, are genetically different, and slight variations can have a large impact on how the body responds.
I most certainly have learned something. Well explained and to the point at all times. Now a subscriber. Thank you.
I’m more confused than ever after reading the comments. lol The problem always is that for anybody that has great success with cutting out or adding anything to a diet is that we never get the whole picture from just one comment. Things like how old is the person, what has their diet been like for their whole life, does their family have any genetic strength or weakness for one thing or another, what foods are available in their region,etc. We just can’t get that kind of big picture view from comments or anecdotal evidence. I live in Japan, btw and my Japanese wife has great BP, while mine has been historically a bit high(in the recent few years when I’ve checked it). We eat the same dinner - she eats a light breakfast while I tend to not eat breakfast, and our lunches differ, and have been married and eaten like this for the past 15 years. For the past few years I have gone hard core on low carb consistently but there has been no perceivable improvement to BP. (Also I am at about 17% body fat) My Japanese doctor said to reduce salt. When trying to significantly increase potassium and decrease salt this resulted in a perceptible electrolyte imbalance and no decrease of BP. Also Keto and Carnivore diets did not really work for me either. So I’m just going to stick with a moderate, eat a bit of everything diet while continuing 16/8 Intermittent Fasting. I definitely will not be afraid of salt, but I won’t be piling it on either. I am so done with diets in general. I will definitely stay away from vegetable oils and sugar though - and when I do eat carbs I will be sure they are as pure as possible. For seafood, meat, butter, and cheese - I’ll eat small amounts of these every now and then - but again I have begun to understand the importance of variety and moderation. Hopefully this coupled with regular exercise will lead to a lower BP. Maybe my past failures to lower BP while on low carb were due to not enough salt- but frankly I am just tired of testing and confirming that right now. Maybe someday I’ll give it a shot.
I'm in the same boat...we are not all made the same!
It depends as some people are affected by salt and again if your in a diuretic and blood pressure meds you don’t want to negate the diuretic by adding salt. I’m very sensitive to salt and my blood pressure will go up fast. The real determining factor is to take you blood pressure and see if salt affects you. That’s the only true test.
Thanks Dr. Fung for your expert medical advise. Most other "medical experts" on RUclips are chiropractors or personal trainers.
Chiropractors ARE doctors. They just arent part of the allopathic version of doctor that the AMA / Big Health tries to convince us are the only ones. That isnt so.
@@swansuz Really? So if you break your arm, have a seizure, have a hear attack or need brain surgery you're going to see a chiropractor?
My blood pressure has been high for years. This year it got dangerously high. (190/110)
I changed my diet and removed sugar and processed foods (including seed oils.) I did NOT change my sea salt intake.
My BP is now completely stably lower. (125-135/70)
What kind of seed oils?
I think thats not normal. less than 120 is normal
The science is very well defined for me and I get my sodium and potassium tested several times a year. Most informed people know that it's the dose that makes the poison and that there's an optimum range for most things.
Thank you Dr. Fung. Adding to your comment about eating processed food & HTN, it’s also the consumption of ultra processed cheap salt lacking other important minerals.
Can you please provide the references to the other graphs you depicted. Thank you.
The Swedish website for healthcare has an article about reducing salt, but mentions further down in the text that they recommend reducing salt intake to 6 grams per day.
It made me realize two years ago that I had suffered from a salt deficiency all my life.
Now I salt 1-2 grams extra per day, which has given me normal blood pressure (before it was too low) and I avoid cramps in the calves.
Straight to the point: TY Dr. Fung!!
I was taken off salt 40 years ago, I've started adding back Himalayan salt the last few months with no problems.
Excellent video as usual Dr. Fung, big fan. Please do a video on LDL cholesterol and what the real scrutinized, today's science says, thanks.
Very interesting!!! That's all I've ever heard my whole entire 66 years of my life is to reduce or stop using salt!!!!!!!
Again, thank you Dr Fung for sharing your information on a highly argued subject!!!
Only because we have so much added to our modern processed food. Zero sodium is fatal. We can get enough from natural foods. Salt can then be added at the table, for taste only.
Thanks for that break down. I have been causally aware of the non negative effects of salt intake but your break down gives me more confidence. Very informative. I have an 80 year old mother in law on a very very low salt diet recommended by her doctor and she recently suffered quite serious (fortunately non fatal) cardiac issue which I am sure are down to her low salt intake.
It's impossible to convince people. Her grand-daughter (my wife's daughter) is studying to be a surgeon and is insistent that salt is a killer based on her medical studies.
The medical curriculum is designed to train "doctors" to sell pharma products. They no longer teach doctors how to help people optimize their immune system to keep them healthy because there is ZERO profit in people staying healthy. 99% of the doctors get paid to keep people sick and to keep people taking drugs. There are literally a handful of doctors who truly care about keeping people healthy - without pharma intervention - such as Dr. Jason.
THANK YOU dear Dr Fung, this is so important to bring to the forth‼️
Thanks, a real eye opener. I lost 65lbs in the last 6 months via a low carb diet and intermittent fasting, and dramatically lowered my blood pressure. I was eating a very low salt diet before that…I suspect that eating real food including salt but very little sugar and other processed foods explains my experience.
I think the key is distinguishing between the salt food makers add in processed foods and you yourself adding natural salt (kosher, sea, Himalayan, etc) to homemade, natural, minimally processed meals and foods.
We have so much salt in our processed foods the food industry is worried they can not lower their levels and still get the addictive flavours they rely upon. So they have perpetuated this false debate. Zero sodium is fatal. Double blind studies show the immediate effects of altering sodium content in food. The red flag for me is the good doctor not mentioning the balancing effect of potassium. Potassium just happens to be in huge amounts in black table pepper. Bananas have pale levels in comparison.
I’ve struggled with hypertension for 20 yrs despite always being a healthy weight and consuming very little sodium. My former doctor used to scold me about reducing my sodium, even though time after time my sodium levels on my blood work would be flagged for being too low and there was no way I could further reduce it since i didn’t eat any processed food or add salt to my food.
I recently read a study that showed that sodium levels that were too low were far worse for blood pressure than sodium levels that were too high and that one of the biggest contributing factors were diets low in other electrolytes, namely magnesium.
Thank you dr Fung again you prove everything in moderation...
I know that there are biases in sceince and medicine, but I do definitely 100% notice a difference in blood pressure when I eat more sodium. I am talking 20 point difference top and bottom. Especially food with high sodium and a lot of preservatives. It may be unique to certain individuals and certain ethnicities, as far as I know they have not accounted for that. So for me more sodium definitely means higher blood pressure.
Foods with high sodium are, by rule, very processed. Whole foods with added salt to flavor them probably would not react the same way to your body chemistry?🤔
Yes, you have done your own tests. Excellent. 4/5 persons can not handle the excessive amount of sodium in our processed foods. No problems eating natural foods!
Thank you!! Just what I needed to know, I am trying to resolve my high BP. First vid, new sub. I will be following this. Thanks again.
Sodium is essential, chloride is essential therefore yes, salt (sodium chloride) is essential. Lowering sodium will do absolutely nothing to ameliorate high blood pressure (idiopathic hypertension), that is the result of high insulin and the Randle Cycle, i.e. chronically elevated blood glucose. Ameliorate it by not pouring carbohydrates down your neck.
Just stop eating animals, birds, fish, dairy products & oil. These foods clog arteries & contribute to high blood pressure
@@jgrysiak6566 🤦♂️, no; wrong.
@@matthewalexandersayers4470 Agree. Totally Wrong!😉
@@jgrysiak6566 Anyone who says fish increase risk of heart attacks have a clear and obvious agenda of harming people.
@@TehKaiser , fish have cholesterol & saturated fat like an animal. Now they are swimming in dirty rivers, lakes, oceans, dirty farm raised pens, full of pollution & mercury. Check Dr. McDougall website for red light foods.
Have a wonderful day. Thku for clear and short information ❤
This is why I always recommend to people, to do a thorough analysis of the science, and then do the opposite. Scientists are paid to reach the outcome desired by their employer, and that outcome is always bad for humanity. Look to what they are trying to inject with, for example.
Thank you Dr Fung for presenting this info.
Can't wait for the next video!
The same erroneous thinking, which falsely identified cholesterol as the cause of heart disease, is the same error in judgement that has demonized salt, and implicated it in high blood pressure. Like most maladies that afflict us, the causes are multi-factorial. Chances are, when a substance, which we have eaten in significant quantities for millennia, and which never caused problems, is all of a sudden vilified as the cause of a modern pervasion of disease, the person making the assertion is not looking at the broader context. Salt or cholesterol is not the problem. Its the metabolic milieu that weaponizes these benign and beneficial substances which is the problem.
Cholesterol contributes to heart disease. Your body makes all it needs without eating animals, birds, fish, dairy products
A high sugar diet is what contributes to heart disease and high blood pressure. Fructose in the diet gets converted to triglycerides in the liver, and in time results in fatty liver, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and high blood pressure - a result of high systemic insulin needed to "force" cells to accept excessive blood sugar. Salt gets the blame for the blood pressure despite these facts.
The whole "cholesterol is bad" propaganda fed billions of dollars into the pharma industry for decades as long as the patents on statins allowed big profits. Anyone who doesn't know this is at best uninformed, at worst a shill.
@@lovely7983 Lipoprotein are actually what is in plaque and it is through inflammation of the blood vessel lining that causes formation. Triglycerides/HDL has a stronger predictive value.
The reason so-called plant based diets work is due to elimination of inflammatory foods common in most diets. The elimination is so extreme that while all the bad foods are eliminated, so are the foods the actually are not bad.
Cholesterol is so well-regulated that eating more of it is entirely irrelevant to managing levels and thus eating meat will not harm homeostasis.
Thank you. I found that most low-salt diet patients had colon and liver cancers. Some have hypocalcemia and some have hypercalcemia. Increasing salt intake in the low-salt diet patients will do more harm until the mineral balance was restored.
There are two salt types: Sea Salt and Chemical Salt. So, one should be careful about interpreting.
Hi Dr. Fung! Thank you for your videos. Happy Holidays!
Well said. Looking forward to hearing more about salt next time.
Definitely improved my knowledge not only abiut the correlation between salt and high blood pressure if it exists anywat but ine of the tools of mera analysis how it spots an accuracy of a studies with this veey clarifying graph. Thats education. Thanks
When I went on a low carb diet I notice I frequently had to urinate but, I also needed salt because I had heart ❤️palpitations and I added Redmond sea salt. I felt better and once you stop eating unhealthy you will need extra salt.
In nature all foods are low in sodium, celery is an exception. Zero sodium intake is fatal. Yet, humans evolved well before the salt industry. Double blind controlled studies show the cause and effect of adding or removing excess sodium. I am more concerned about what other changes you have made to your diet that can cause heart palpitations. Get medical advice about your root cause. The sea salt makes sense as it is not only sodium chloride. You are getting some other electrolytes. Better isn' t best. Vegetables are low carbohydrate are you getting enough leafy greens?
Thank you Dr Fung! I greatly appreciate your research and the hope you have given me.
Ok this is interesting…. Especially seeing as years ago my gut doctor ( I have crohns and no large intestine) and very specifically , my GI doctor from OHSU, said I would be able to eat more salt than normal and would need more than normal non crohns people
Never really thought about it until seeing this
Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Dr. Fung. Love your videos
I remember learning that HBP was caused by salt and the proof being the example of the big population of Japanese men who ate a very salty soya sauce, etc., and had HBP.
Soy sauce and low Potassium/Magnesium. That data set was from a village in Japan where the majority of the diet was salty fish and rice with minimal fruits, vegetables or potatoes.
There’s no correlation between sodium intake and hypertension. It may raise blood pressure transiently, but as soon as a person pees out the additional water, their blood pressure will drop. Unless someone has Renal insufficiency OR Congestive Heart Failure, they don’t need to be concerned about their sodium (or salt) intake.
I've never really been a saltaholic, probably did try to cut back years ago, but just because I heard it was 'healthful' to do so. Anyways, my BP was getting up to 140/85 quite regularly. A couple of years ago, began keto, lost 20 pounds and blood pressure now is about 110/65. I have not substantially altered my salt intake at all.
My wife had low blood pressure before she went keto. Almost too low. On keto, her blood pressure went up where mine is now. She has a struggle to maintain an electrolyte balance, or else hers really goes up. She has always liked a lot of salt, and still eats a lot of salt. My guess is that on keto, you are almost bound to lose out on potassium, because the potassium rich foods are also high carb. So we do eat some potato and banana or plantain to get potassium. It is impractical to supplement potassium as the pill form is 100 mg, and the daily RDA is 4700. I have no idea how well potassium gets recirculated but it must be different between my wife and I, because I don't have symptoms of electrolyte imbalance that she does.
The more salt you eat, the more your body excretes it, and with it goes other electrolytes as well. The body also has very efficient sodium conserving system. It can dump excess potassium without losing much sodium in the process, but not the other way around. IIRC aldosterone is the sodium sparing & potassium excreting hormone, if you care to have a look.
I was carnivore for months with barely adding any salt to my food. Sometimes i took a small pinch of potassium. I mostly used those electrolytes when i was fasting for 24h or more, and even then in rather modest amounts, compared to the recommendations. I think that more important than how much you get certain nutrient (after a certain point), it might be more important in what ratio it comes in with it's "competing" counterpart, like sodium-potassium, magnesium-calcium, copper-zinc etc.
@@metheiam5714 Yes. And if anybody is taking an ACE inhibitor then be careful about potassium intake thru foods high in potassium. And do NOT use products that contain potassium such as NO SALT. It can quickly elevate your blood serum to very unsafe levels!! Best to always check with your pharmacist first!!😉
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 “No salt” also tastes horrible as potassium gives a bitter taste.
@@TehKaiser It does taste terrible. I'm glad I will Never have to use it!! I learned a quick and hard lesson. It made me feel absolutely horrible the very first day I added it!
My head felt like it would explode from the pressure! Felt like I suddenly had an awful case of the Flu.
Yup. I am on an ACE inhibitor for blood pressure.#YIKES And Nope, my doctor NEVER said a word about not adding any potassium.
I figured it out quickly, as that was the Only thing I'd changed in my diet. I looked it up and sure enough,...it is very Contra-indicated!!😳
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 Potassium “soothes” while sodium “excites”. The ions interact with each other in cellular processes, balancing each other out. People had a strong a affinity for salt. That’s why gold was traded for salt in the past.
I just listen to your video for the first time. I am very intrigued by what you said.
Sir you are always great... including your research analysis.
I came to know that after my own experience with it. Thank you for bringing it into public awareness. ❤❤❤
Unfortunately Americans too often think in extremes & dichotomies. Salt is important electrolyte. Quality of the salt and appropriate amount is what is the best. We each must look at the data and our own situation to determine the optimal amount. As with most things.
What kind of quality salt will you recommend, and how much of salt to take in a day?
I have heard from many people I trust that Redmonds sea salt is best. I personally use pink Himalayan salt. Delicious. But may move to Redmond's.
thank you Dr. Fung for spreading the real information.
I found that when I stopped using table salt (i.e.: Morton's, etc) and started using unprocessed sea salt (Celtic, etc), my blood pressure dropped. That was 4yrs ago and it was the only change made (diet/lifestyle) at that time.
Salt is salt. There is no such thing as processed and unprocessed salt. There is no difference whatsoever between table salt and 'sea salt'
I consume quite a bit of salt but not the white powdery stuff in salt shakers. It's either sea salt or my preferance,Himalayan sea salt. My b/p is less than 120/80 and I'm a man in his mid fifties
There is an excellent book about this called "the salt fix"
Its better to have too much than too little.
5 to 6 grams (1 teaspoon) is the best amount unless you are sensitive to salt.
It's sure does make food taste better. Dr. McDougall says to only salt the surface of the food
@@jgrysiak6566 I'm not sure it matters where the salt is as long as you get sufficient.
It may taste stronger on the outside.
The book the salt fix explains how the recommendations to cut salt were based on poor biased science as is so much in nutrition.
ruclips.net/video/MyNCH0dK7Fk/видео.html
is that 5-6 of sodium chloride (salt) or sodium? and is that total or addition to what you normally take?
@@percy9228 sodium chloride, I don't measure it but I'm sure its about a teaspoon full per day.
4 months ago I was diagnosed with hypertension with a BP of 153/103 at doctor's office. As of today, I've lost almost 30 pounds and my blood pressure is close to normal. I also no longer snore. I attribute this to the weigh loss and exercise and not so much the
You are averaging almost 2lbs a week- more initially I am sure in that first month. Be very careful. You can lose a gallbladder that way- usually if over 2lbs. I did.
Does the salt matter? I mean like white table salt vs. pink salt or Real salt brand from the Salt Lake. I have heard the white table salt is bleached and not all that great for us. I actually prefer the taste of the Pink Himalayan salt.
The Pink Salt is much better quality.
I have high blood but i do not also follow low sodium diet and i do not even take high blood medication after watching another RUclips video i feel a lot better now for the advises treated the cause not the symptoms at far less cost without side effect, lastly Asian diet are usually salty reason Mc Donald is not so popular with original US recipe
Very interesting video and it would be nice if you make a video about the more salt intake with low carb diets. Thank you very much for your great work and greetings from France /Alsace
Je suis de France et c'est difficile pour moi de comprendre ce qu'il dit même avec le traducteur parfois incompréhensible , faut il manger salé ou pas contre hypertension SVP ?
@@fouadbelkhiri726 je habit a France pas parle bon français.. Vous parle Allenand?
@@Viertelfranzose Non je ne parle pas Allemand bien dommage merci quand même !
@@fouadbelkhiri726 pas de problem
Yet most doctors still recommend low salt diet for high blood pressure. Very similar to recommending patents stay away from high cholesterol foods (butter, eggs, bacon) to lower cholesterol. Salt mainly helps the body balance water retention (and if course balance other minerals). As I have heard, you don’t sweat water, you sweat salt which then draws water out.
I find too many Doctors stop studying after they start practicing, so they slowly get out of sync with new developments in medicine.
I'd never thought about salt drawing the water out for sweat before. Makes total sense. Thanks!
I have thought that this might be the case. Since learning that the food pyramid was a fraud, I’ve questioned all of these pearls of “wisdom” that are supported by big organizations or government.
Thank you, again, Doctor Fung.
Yes, the food pyramid was invented by the Agricultural board, and many things are incorrect, in fact deliberately misrepresented. However, double blind randomised trials show that adding or removing excess sodium from food has cause and effect. Zero sodium (table salt is sodium chloride) in a diet is fatal. Processed foods all have added sodium. Finding the balance is the key. Start by checking food labels, reduce foods high in sodium. Eat whole foods to replace them and add salt if you must, only for taste. Check your own blood pressure at home.
Best wishes.
I totally agree. the problem is with processed food, not salt.
Very interesting! Now I'm left with wondering, who would have an interest in those biassed test... Who would benefit from people eating less/being scared of salt?
Great minds think alike, I guess?😜 But seriously that's the same thing I am wondering about!? I can understand if Coca-cola puts out a biased test showing no negative findings with consuming coke. They are protecting their product sales. I mean, it's Wrong and unethical but I get Why they would do that. But who is behind this biased report on Salt. What is the Motive? Hmmm?🤔
There are so many questions..
Why is the advised maximum intake of vitamin D3 20 mcg (x40 = 800 international units), while a young person wearing short sleeves in summertime produces 10,000-15,000 units in 30 minutes? Over 40% of people are D3 deficient. D3 plays a role in over 1000 biochemical reactions in your body!
Why is selling Borax in many counties forbidden, because it is very dangerous? (It's toxicity is comparable with that of salt and small amounts daily make your arthritis go away).
Why is Iodine only safe in small amounts (145 mcg per day) while traditional Japanese get 1000-3000 mcg per day, and breast cancer there is 10 times lower than in USA?
Why should we get 60 mcg vit C per day, while most animals produce their own vit C in their liver, a goat in stress produces the equal of tens of grams per day?
Why are people prescribed statins when their cholesterol is high? "High" has been lowered over the years. It even was proposed to add it to drinking water 😁.
Cholesterol is essential in your body. Statins may increase diabetes 2 numbers, cause liver disease, muscle pain, headaches, diarrhea, reduces CoQ10, which is essential for energy production in cells.. It also generates enormous cash flows for big pharmaceutical companies.
Follow 💵 💰?
@@rredding Yup. Just follow the money trail. I would Never take a statin. They are Toxic poisons on steriods! My doctor tried putting me on them a few years ago. I said Nope. Got serious with educating myself about nutrition and things quickly turned around in that area as well as all other health issue areas. And this is after recovering from cancer and very toxic aggressive chemo to fight it!!😉 #YAY! Peace Out!💙💙💙
@@gloriamaryhaywood2217 Cheers! The right direction 💚💚💚
The answer is the opposite. The food industry's cheapest flavour enhancers and preservatives are sodium salts. They do not want to lower the sodium in their highly processed and otherwise, bland foods. Salt, fat, sugar are not found in such high concentrations in whole foods. They are perfectly combined by food scientists to be addictive. Big pharma does not want people to go off anti-hypertensive drugs this is a multibillion dollar market. The patients are on these drugs for years, not cured, but treated. Don't be scared of sodium. Zero sodium is fatal. Processed foods when eaten in combination have too much sodium for the average person's kidneys to excrete without the related loss of endothelial function, increased blood pressure and water retention. Best wishes.