Ever seen someone who's been overcome by heat sickness? Common symptoms are: extreme fatigue, muscle cramps, cold chills, vertigo or dizziness, nausea, headache, and fainting.
All of those symptoms are caused by a lack of sufficient sodium in the body, while under heat stress. I know them well, having worked outdoors as a tradesman for the last forty years.
I suffered the ill effects of heat sickness for about ten years, until I happened to visit with a nutritionist, who educated me on the root cause of those difficulties.
Essentially, the body loses minerals through the pores when we sweat; but it's the loss of the mineral, sodium, that brings on the symptoms of heat sickness. Simply replacing that lost sodium with sea salt tablets cures heat sickness within minutes.
Since discovering this simple cure, I've always kept a large bottle of sea salt tablets on my truck, and have made sure that my employees take them daily, during the hot months. About 500 milligrams per 25 pounds of body weight (per day) is best.
It goes without saying, that you should consume lots of water, too.
Being acutely aware of this phenomebon, I've noticed over the decades that most people exhibit one or more symptoms of heat sickness, even when under mild conditions of heat and physical exertion. I can't help but conclude, from that simple observation, that most Americans are chronically deficient in sodium.
“All of those symptoms are caused by a lack of sufficient sodium in the body, while under heat stress.”
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Isn’t that why they have salt licks for animals?
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I know those heat exhaustion symptoms all too well myself. We also sweat out potassium and magnesium in addition to the sodium. Sodium can aggravate high blood pressure, which typically has no symptoms. And the sodium to potassium ratio itself is critical for cardiovascular health. Since you’re taking salt pills make sure that you keep a daily record of your blood pressure, you don’t want to have unnoticed hypertension. And if you get a yearly physical make sure that the blood test includes potassium and sodium levels.
Good point. I just meant that sodium is not a deficiency in any American’s diet. There are many people with various nutrition deficiencies, but sodim is so abundant and often unavoidable in our processed foods that dietary sodium deficiency is unheard of. Sure, environmental factors can create a temporary deficiency of sodium in a given person, but it is not as if an American doctor had to tell a patient, “you need to eat more sodium”. It is everywhere in a common diet, to excess.