People looking to lose weight concentrate most of their efforts on how many calories and carbohydrates they are consuming, but many don’t pay attention to their sodium intake. However, high sodium levels can be detrimental to your health so it’s important that everyone start to track these numbers as well.
Sodium and Your Health
Sodium helps regulate how much water you have in your system. It also helps nerve impulses and contracts or relaxes muscles. The kidneys are the managers of the level of sodium in your body. If you have too much, it will flush it out through your urine, if you have too little, it will take its reserves and use it to keep your fluids at an adequate level for organ functioning.
The problem is that if you have too much sodium over a long period of time, your kidneys may not be able to keep up. Instead, the sodium seeps into your blood. This makes your heart work faster to get blood through your blood vessels. The harder your heart works the higher your risk for heart problems such as congestive heart failure, kidney disease and cirrhosis. For some people, high blood pressure results.
Sodium Goal Level: How Much You Should Consume
You should have between 1,500 to 2,400 milligrams of sodium a day. Of course, this is average and to find out a better figure for your individual health, you’ll have to ask your doctor.
Tue, Apr 20, 2010
Health, Kidney Pain