How Does Salt Influence Blood Pressure?

Keeping your blood pressure within a healthy range is essential to feeling your best, but seasonings high in sodium — particularly salt itself — can spike your blood pressure levels without you even realizing it. Salt leads to water retention in your body, which can lead to high blood pressure, putting your kidneys, heart, and even your brain in great danger.

Reduced Kidney Function
It’s the job of your kidneys to filter excess water out of your blood, cleaning out the unwanted water through urination. This is accomplished by a balance between potassium and sodium in your system — but every time you eat salt, that balance shifts. Since your body is retaining extra fluid, your blood pressure is raised and your kidneys can no longer function properly and must work harder only to accomplish less. Too much salt over time can lead to serious kidney disease and failure.

Clogged Arteries
As your arteries work harder to process extra salt, your blood pressure is raised and arteries must create miniscule muscles to pump things through and filter them faster. This is how clogged arteries, which can lead to burst arteries and fatal organ damage, form, as the arteries are deprived of their necessary oxygen.

Heart Failure
We know excess salt leads to clogged heart arteries, which allows for less blood to reach the heart, resulting in reduced function. This can lead to extreme physical pain (angina in active patients) and further burst arteries in the heart. Over time, however, these problems can lead to a loss of oxygen and essential nutrition, and can result in a heart attack.

Brain
If blood can’t reach the brain due to clogged arteries from eating too much salt, severe psychological disorders, such as dementia, can happen. If you are not mindful over the years of your salt consumption, as with the previously mentioned organs, oxygen can’t reach the brain, leading to a stroke.

To lower your blood pressure and ensure a longer life, keep an eye on your daily salt intake and be sure to remain active.