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How Too Much Salt May Lead To Organ Failure
Plus: 88% of adults are metabolically unhealthy—here's how to make sure that's not you!
The 10almonds Team
April 05, 2023
Thought for the Day: What do you want? Really. Perhaps your mind leaps to money, or good health, or happiness. That’s great, but what will you buy with the money, and why? What is it that you really want? Security? Experiences? The power to help others? And good health, what does that look like; what will you do with it? And happiness, what does that look like? Knowing what you really want makes you a lot more like to get (and secure) it.
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s Key Learnings:
Flying by? Here are some key take-away ideas from today’s newsletter:
There are indicators of dyslexia (used in clinical tests), and they aren’t all (or even mostly) about reading/writing ability.
Many dyslexics find coping strategies that can obscure their dyslexia, but the underlying challenge is still there and still relevant
Too much salt is terrible for heart health… And more:
Too much salt can also strip away the lining of your blood vessels
This results in nutrients no longer getting where they should
This can cause problems all around your body, in important organs, including your brain.
The following organizations recommend these daily limits of salt:
World Health Organization: no more than 5g/day
American Heart Association: no more than 2.3g/day, and ideally, no more than 1.5g/day
Some kinds of fasting can cause unexpected challenges for skincare, so we have some quick tops from the experts, including:
Hydrate when you can
Avoid binge-eating when you break your fast (we know it’s tempting)
Remember to moisturize after washing (especially relevant if washing 5+ times per day)
Beyond salt: our book of the day tackles heart health from all angles
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
The Dyslexia Test
Dyslexia’s a much-misunderstood condition, and often goes alongside (or blends into) other things in life. Dyslexic educator Arije-Aike de Haas is here to sort things out:
❝This dyslexia test can be an excellent start to discovering whether or not you have dyslexia. It is used for a broad age range, including dyslexic adults. With this test, most adults are correctly identified as either dyslexic or non-dyslexic. While it does not replace an official diagnosis, this dyslexia test can be the first step in finding out something new about yourself.❞
Key moments:
For what it’s worth, I (your writer here, hi!) absolutely flopped any dyscalculia test parts of this video, and it’s not the same thing as being bad at math! Despite the fact I can handle university-level math of the kind that doesn’t have many numbers in it, I struggle with simple mental arithmetic, must count on fingers to do single-digit calculations, and have been known to screw up counting down from 10. Good thing I’m a writer!
🫀 MAIN FEATURE
Salt’s Health Risks… More Than Just Heart Disease!
It's been well-established for a long time that too much salt is bad for cardiovascular health. It can lead to high blood pressure, which in turn can lead to many problems, including heart attacks.
A team of researchers has found that in addition to this, it may be damaging your organs themselves.
This is because high salt levels peel away the surfaces of blood vessels. How does this harm your organs? Because it's through those walls that nutrients are selectively passed to where they need to be—mostly your organs. So, too much salt can indirectly starve your organs of the nutrients they need to survive. And you absolutely do not want your organs to fail!
❝We've identified new biomarkers for diagnosing blood vessel damage, identifying patients at risk of heart attack and stroke, and developing new drug targets for therapy for a range of blood vessel diseases, including heart, kidney and lung diseases as well as dementia❞
See the evidence for yourself: Endothelial Damage Arising From High Salt Hypertension Is Elucidated by Vascular Bed Systematic Profiling
Diets high in salt are a huge problem in Canada, North America as a whole, and around the world. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released March 9, Canadians consume 9.1 grams of salt per day.
You may be wondering: who is eating over 9g of salt per day?
And the answer is: mostly, people who don't notice how much salt is already in processed foods... don't see it, and don't think about it.
Meanwhile, the WHO recommends the average person to consume no more than five grams, or one teaspoon, of salt per day.
The American Heart Association, tasked with improving public health with respect to the #1 killer of Americans (it’s also the #1 killer worldwide—but that’s not the AHA’s problem), goes further! It recommends no more than 2.3g per day, and ideally, no more than 1.5g per day.
Some handy rules-of-thumb
Here are sodium-related terms you may see on food packages:
Salt/Sodium-Free = Less than 5mg of sodium per serving
Very Low Sodium = 35mg or less per serving
Low Sodium = 140mg or less per serving
Reduced Sodium = At least 25% less sodium per serving than the usual sodium level
Light in Sodium or Lightly Salted = At least 50% less sodium than the regular product
Confused by milligrams? Instead of remembering how many places to move the decimal point (and potentially getting an "out by an order of magnitude error—we've all been there!), think of the 1.5g total allowance as being 1500mg.
😎 QUICK TIPS
Skincare Under Difficult Conditions?
For those who observe, today marks the middle of Ramadan. The most talked-about health consideration is hydration (during daylight-hours fasting, which for Ramadan includes not consuming water). Having low hydration, a changed pattern of eating, and disturbed sleep can all have an impact on your skin!
Dr. Muneeb Shah, a dermatologist and educator, along with Farah Ferrero, a social media influencer with a large following, want to share their knowledge and experience, and have the following tips for taking extra care of your skin:
Hydrate when you can! That includes when breaking your fast in the evening, and also before the sun rises in the morning.
It can be tempting, when breaking one’s fast in the evening, to have all one’s favorite things. But binge-eating, especially processed high-calorie foods, can be bad for the skin (as well as general health). Dr. Shah recommends practicing moderation even at those times.
Ferrero adds that the face can become especially dehydrated from washing after prayer time, and to take extra care to moisturize to keep the moisture in (this does not count as breaking one’s fast).
She also adds that double-cleansing is a good idea, and Dr. Shah has a three-step skincare routine. But on busy days there’s no shame in just using wipes and moisturizer!
For those not observing, this is still great advice!
Hydration is (almost) always good
Mindful eating is always better than binge-eating
Skincare is an underestimated part of general health
Just like the tooth-flossing/heart-disease correlation, not everything is what we see
Additionally, good skincare is for many people a fantastic mood-booster, and as we’re fond of saying, “mental health is also just health”
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Stay off My Operating Table - by Dr. Philip Ovadia
With heart disease as the #1 killer worldwide, and 88% of adults being metabolically unhealthy (leading cause of heart disease), this is serious!
Rather than taking a "quick fix" advise-and-go approach, Dr. Ovadia puts the knowledge and tools in our hands to do better in the long term.
As a heart surgeon himself, his motto here is:
❝What foods to put on your table so you don't end up on mine❞
There's a lot more to this book than the simple "eat the Mediterranean diet":
While the Mediterranean diet is generally considered the top choice for heart health, he also advises on how to eat healthily on all manner of diets... Carnivore, Keto, Paleo, Atkins, Gluten-Free, Vegan, you-name-it.
A lot of the book is given to clearing up common misconceptions, things that sounded plausible but are just plain dangerous. This information alone is worth the price of the book, we think.
There's also a section given over to explaining the markers of metabolic health, so you can monitor yourself effectively
Rather than one-size-fits-all, he also talks about common health conditions and medications that may change what you need to be doing
He also offers advice about navigating the health system to get what you need—including dealing with unhelpful doctors!
Bottom line: A very comprehensive (yet readable!) manual of heart health.
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Wishing you happy hump-day,
The 10almonds Team