Sea Salt Health Benefits - Bladder Infections, Sore Throats, Sinuses - Ted's Q&A

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Too Much Salt?

Posted by Kim (Indiana) on 12/31/2007

Today as part of a cleanse diet, I took two teaspoons of sea salt in a quart of water. This completely cleaned me out but left me with no energy and a pounding headache. I was also taking lemonade made with maple syrup and cayenne pepper. After a headache that lasted for hours I decided to take an Excedrin Migraine and eat an orange. Can you tell me if I had too much sea salt or where this headache came from? What do I do if I have taken too much sea salt?

Replied by Ted
Bangkok, Thailand
391 posts

You took 4 times the normal dose of sea salt remedy. The normal dose is 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt per one liter of water. In event that sea salt was taken too much drinking more water such as 1/2 glass of water without any sea salt would drive the sea salt. In event that didn't work, an addition 1/8 teaspoon of potassium citrate (never potassium chloride) in 1/2 glass of water, would displace or drive out the sodium too. However, it is the excess chloride in the sea salt which caused the pounding headaches for me, and some baking soda may 1/8 or 1/4 teaspoon may reduced the chloride buildup which caused the sodium retention, and may lead to a laxative effect if that is added. It should be noted that in a normal cellular fluids the sodium is more than the chloride by about 20%, so when taking too much sea salt, the chloride levels in the body is increased, causing a pounding headache and so called sodium retention. Apparently, if the above two remedy is not working as well as expected a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in 1/2 glass of water would displace the chloride and reduce the so called sodium retention. Actually the problem about today's sodium retention is more like excess intakes of chlorides, rather than sodium, which is found in the component of salt (sodium chloride). The addition of sodium, would increase the sodium, and lower the chloride, leading to a more normal cellular fluids. This concept has helped me in the past whenever I used 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda plus 1/2 sea salt in 1 glass of water to resolved my constipation, and sometimes I used more, such as 1 teaspoon of each if the constipation was bad. In summary, I might at least try to drink some more water, such as 1/2 glass to help. If that doesn't work and potassium isn't immediately available, I might take a small amount of baking soda of 1/4 teaspoon in 1/2 glass.


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