SALT OR NO SALT?

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1930, Page 8

SALT OR NO SALT?

WV are salted ! just enough by Mother She thinks—why, wt know not—that seven-tenths of one per cent is about right for the blood and other bodily fluids.- More or less makes us ill. Hence, too much salt is a poison; but, -if we have 'too little, salt is the only thing that will curt us. A vital food up to Natures percentage.; then a toxic- nuisance. Says a medical contributor to' “L’Euvre” (Paris), signing himself - f ‘Dr. B.” This question-comes up at regular intervals. About 1905, under the. inW idal, salt was forbidden 1 in. all cases of edema, because edema was a sign that the bodily fluids were carrying an access of sodium chloride: But now. there are known cases of progressive poisoning, some with fatal results, due to the suppression of salt in the food. Only the adminstration of salt in large doses has any effect in such cases. Numerous persons, especially among those convalescing after some disease suffer from deficiency of salt in their fluids. These should beware of adopting a saltkbs diet, wihich would probably lead them ultimately to the grave. On the. other hand, those are not less numerous—especially plethoric persons —those with high blood pressure and well fed—who have too much salt in their fluids: It 1 is for these latter that we must prescribe a diet'without salt or low in l salt. "In general, our tissues are bathed in fluids* that" contain about seven parts per thousand, by weight, of sordium chloride. This * proportion is practically invar ably in a state of ihealth. The balance is so well adjusted jjthat it can' be disturbed only by serious lesions of the kidneys, liver or arteries. Sow shall we go about resalting the body when it is nessary ? If there is no hurry, jif there is no indication’of urgent action, merely put more salt on the food. If, on the other, hand, thfere is immediate 1 urgency, there must be intravenous or subcutaneous of' artificial physiological serum, which is simply a solution of salt in water in> the proportion of seven parts in a thousand,