Friday, April 29, 2011

Daily health gyan: not-so-simple salt

Gosh, and one thot salt was a simple thing.. Did u know if someone added too much salt (mistaking it for sugar) there had been deaths from that!  Too little salt with too much water can cause water intoxication -- often I am warning `illiterate' students (who despite getting 99 per cent in state board exams for sure:) who have no clue about such simple things that can cause extreme conditions in the body (which worries me what we are educating our kids about -- vague things that have no relevance to real life, for sure!). Esp if they have had loose motions are just drinking water, water to hydrate not realising that they can get  some serious cramps..due to electrolyte imbalance. The water has to have a tsp of sugar and salt to reintroduce electrolyte imbalance.
In summer when u are sweating, water is good but with a some salt in the food to return the sodium lost.....
Too little salt, low blood pressure. Too much salt, high blood pressure.
Wrong use of salt (as emetic -- Marilyn Monroe used to do a lot of this sort of stuff, so there was always a question what she was doing when she died) as emetic when the electrolyte balance in the body is out of kilter can even be fatal!!

1 comment:

Anila said...

My mom is a chemistry/biology teacher at school. Si at home it was always 'chemical' terms :-) and I have grown up hearing about electolytes and osmotic balance.But I've seen a lot of ppl simply sipping water when they feel dehydrated, maybe they should keep those ORS packets n handy during summer- especially for kids.

Another good remedy suggested by elders at my place is starch water(the water that you strain out after cooking rice).It has the necessary energy and a little bit of salt n sugar can do wonders!