Salt is Bad to You
The amount of salt you eat has a direct effect on your blood pressure.
Salt makes your body hold on to water. If you eat too much salt, the extra water stored in your body raises your blood pressure. So, the more salt you eat, the higher your blood pressure.
The higher your blood pressure, the greater the strain on your heart, arteries, kidneys and brain. This can lead to heart attacks, strokes, dementia and kidney disease.
Also, eating too much salt may mean that blood pressure medicines (such as diuretics) don't work as well as they could.
Salt and Heart Attack
The raised blood pressure caused by eating too much salt may damage the arteries leading to the heart.
At first, it may cause a slight reduction in the amount of blood reaching the heart. This may lead to angina (sharp pains in the chest when being active).
- If you continue to eat too much salt then, over time, the damage caused by the extra blood pressure may become so severe that the arteries burst or become completely clogged.
- If this happens, then the part of the heart that was receiving the blood no longer gets the oxygen and nutrients it needs and dies. The result is a heart attack.
- The best way to prevent a heart attack is to stop the arteries becoming damaged. And one of the best ways of doing this is keep your blood pressure down by eating less salt.
