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Comment by tetraodonpuffer | Hacker News Reader

my n=1: I am on an extremely low sodium diet (around 500mg/day) and I didn't find any difference in thirst or hunger levels compared to when I was on a more typical 4000-5000mg/day one.

The only change for me (besides of course a period of adjustment where food didn't taste like much) has been a significantly lower blood pressure (from typically 145/85 to 105/65), everything else has remained pretty much the same.

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As with many things different people react in different ways. Examples with taste include Low Salt (potassium based) which a few people taste as being quite bitter. Coriander / Cilantro is a lovely herb to many, but a few people find it very soapy.

My understanding has been that some people are more sensitive to sodium than others. If your BP is normal, chances are it won't have much affect, but if you've high BP then it is more likely to have an affect on your BP. I can't comment on causes, perhaps those who are more sensitive are more likely to have raised BP.

That's interesting, did you control for changes in other diet elements, exercise, and water intake ? Some more recent studies show that except for short term spikes in blood pressure, salt isn't that guilty for high blood pressure in healthy individuals.

I'm going to throw a wrench into the gears by sharing the following: I had high blood pressure- not medication-triggering, just high-eyebrow stuff when I was younger (30s-early 40s). As a teenager I learned of the dangers of salt and weaned it out of my diet.

I got married and am the cook of the family, so after much complaining I started to add salt to my dishes when I cooked.

My blood pressure when down. Not by a little, but to the "wow your blood pressure is amazing" category (105 or 110). So, yeah, I don't think we know how salt works.

NB my exercise/habits stayed pretty much the same in this period.

My cardiologist told me never to try a low-sodium diet without talking with him first. He is very up-to-date on research and said that an equal number of people see blood pressure increase on low-sodium as see blood pressure decrease but for many (most?) people the difference is negligible. In other words if you are one of the ones who is very sensitive to changes in sodium you are as likely to be harmed as helped by lowering sodium.

Wow, so the blanket "high blood pressure = eat less salt" advice given by most doctors sounds not just unhelpful but flat-out wrong and dangerous.

not if you're the people who sell blood pressure medication...

True to your username... ;)

Also I've read of some studies that less than 1500mg sodium intake for day has increased cardiovascular risks.

Another n=1. I've been on 2 blood pressure pills for 2 years I was reading about very low sodium diets, and decided to start an experiment on Thursday. Eating only unprocessed foods, non-dairy/meat/fish. I dropped the diuretic pill at the beginning, and have now dropped the ARB medication. Gone from average 140/95 to 124/84 in 4 days.

It seems possible that there are widely varying responses, and for those like me who are salt sensitive, then low sodium may mean 500mg rather than 1500/2250mg that various research suggests. In hunter/gatherer societies, 500mg would be a more typical level one would receive - this research refers to 4 tribes with lowest sodium intake (& lowest BPs) in INTERSALT study. http://publicacoes.cardiol.br/abc/2003/8003/80030005i.pdf.

Also, came across, an article which mentioned no other animal has a sodium potassium balance with more sodium than potassium which is what most humans in 'modern' world now have.

no other changes, working out and water have been the same before and after (always worked out quite a bit, always drank quite a bit) same as appetite: I did not restrict sodium for blood pressure reasons, I was definitely surprised when I saw it that low and remain low since as all my life prior I've always been around the same higher but still normal bp, the sodium intake was the only change I made (of course this also implied some dietary changes, like no bread anymore due to sodium contents, but nothing else really major)

Would definitely be interested in finding more studies on extremely low sodium diets (especially on possible long term side effects), but finding information has been quite difficult.

It's not clear how you can say "no other changes" and follow on with "of course this also implied some dietary changes, like no bread anymore due to sodium contents".

That seems like a potentially significant change you're ignoring.

fair enough, although I personally don't think that cutting bread and eating more potatoes is that big of a difference overall, it is a difference so hey, for all I know that might have influenced things. As I was saying above, n=1 after all.

That this with a grain of salt <snort!>

It has been suggested that "leptin resistance is considered a primary risk factor for obesity. It has been hypothesized that dietary cereal grain protein could cause leptin resistance by preventing leptin from binding to its receptor."

"Similar to what is observed in chronic inflammation, chronically elevated leptin levels are associated with obesity, overeating, and inflammation-related diseases, including hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease."[2]

1. https://bmcbiochem.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12858...

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptin

> although I personally don't think that cutting bread and eating more potatoes is that big of a difference overall

Bread and potatoes have a big impact on blood glucose levels. Actually, potatoes have a glycemic index that's even higher than table sugar.

Diet is such a complex thing that it's really difficult to control for.

I'm on something similar. For about half a year, food tasted bland, but now most of the time I eat at a restaurant, food tastes gaggingly salty.

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