Why can’t a high sodium diet be offset by the consumption of a lot of water?
In: Chemistry
Water and sodium like to move in pairs. So a high consumption of sodium is going to cause the body to retain a lot of water. Trying to offset high Na consumption by drinking more water just adds insult to injury in the way of even more water retention. Excess fluid volume/retention causes a whole host of problems – extra work for the kidneys, extra work for the heart, and damages the blood vessels due to increased blood pressure to name a few (and high blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke – definitely don’t want that! High blood pressure also contributes to kidney and heart failure). Extra work for the heart and kidneys also leads to long term damage in the ways of physiological compensation and physical/structural changes of some organs (that at first are efficient in handling the increased fluid volume, but overtime actually do much more harm than good) leading to exhaustion and poorer functioning – AKA heart and kidney failure. The healthy body initially will be able to compensate for the high Na/H2O intake, but eventually the long term effects of that poor diet choice are going to cause a lot of dysfunction and leave the consumer pretty unhappy.
Latest Answers