MY STUDY SHOWS THAT LIBERAL SALT CONSUMPTION IS DEFINITELY GOOD, AND THAT HAS NEVER BEEN A CULPRIT FOR ANY OF THE MAJOR DISEASES

MY STUDY SHOWS THAT LIBERAL SALT CONSUMPTION IS DEFINITELY GOOD, AND THAT HAS NEVER BEEN A CULPRIT FOR ANY OF THE MAJOR DISEASES

(© 24 January 2016: Dr.V.M.Palaniappan, Ph.D.)

I strongly believe that this (my) article will definitely and completely change the entire world from its misconception with regard to salt conception, for sure!

The biggest mistake that has been made in the health care industry during the past about 75 years appears to be related to the so-called harmful effects of salt – the Sodium chloride, otherwise called the cooking or table salt.

The medical fraternity knows very well that salt is an important ELECTROLYTE that helps in the efficient functioning of our BRAIN, besides several other very important and beneficial deeds!

Even before you can begin to read my findings, I think, you should know what has been going on in this area of research, nowadays.

*   *   *   *   *   *  

Did you read the following news, reported recently?

“Reducing salt intake might harm heart failure patients, study claims”

This was found in Health Day Reporter, dated 26 Dec., 2015, by Dennis Thompson: You can read it through the following URL:  http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-12-salt-intake-heart-failure-patients.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ctgr-item&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

“Patients with moderate heart failure who stuck to a low-sodium diet were 85 percent more likely to die or require hospitalization for heart disease, when compared to similarly ill patients who didn't restrict their salt intake”, Dr. Rami Doukky, a cardiologist and associate professor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago has found.”

“However, Doukky and other cardiologists warned that the study findings are very preliminary and should not be interpreted by heart failure patients to mean that it's OK to reach for the salt shaker. Rigorous clinical trials are needed to further test the safety of this hypothesis”

“Salt also increases blood pressure by drawing water into the arteries and veins*, according to the American Heart Association, and high blood pressure is a long-known risk factor for heart disease.”

The above findings were published online, on 28 Dec., in JACC: Heart Failure, a journal published by the American College of Cardiology.

(* If that person does not drink adequate water, the blood would get thicker, ‘coagulate’, and that would then increase the pressure. However, this will NOT happen in those people who drink 2 L or more of water – Dr. Palani’s observation: see details towards the end of this article.)

Please read the abstracts of the following three studies, which are completely imaginary, created by me with a specific purpose in mind. 

SALT HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, OR ANY OF THE HEART PROBLEMS.

RESEARCH SURVEY-1

Title of the paper: Effect of sodium chloride (salt) on blood pressure in humans. 

Purpose: To conduct a survey to see if excessive salt intake has anything to do with high blood pressure in humans. 

Method:  Eminent researching specialist doctors carefully took blood samples (along with a measure of the blood pressure) at random from two million people. 

The blood samples were then analysed to find the quantity of the salt present in it.  The analyses were done in a world’s best laboratory by most qualified and experienced technicians, under the strict supervision of a top scientist.   

Results:  The results obtained were subjected to statistical analysis.  A very significant positive correlation (at 99.99%) existed between the salt content in blood and high blood pressure.   

That is, the blood pressure has been found to definitely increase with increased salt content.   

In other words, all those people who had high blood pressure also had high salt content in their blood.  Similarly, all those who had normal pressure had less salt content in their blood.    

Conclusion:  The study conducted showed very clearly that salt is a definite risk factor in giving people high blood pressure.   

Therefore, it is strongly recommended that people should certainly avoid taking salted foods. All food manufacturers are equally recommended not to enrich their food with salt, or they should add only a minimum to their preparations.  This suggestion should be considered one of the best ways to prevent heart-related diseases*. 

(This was the exact recommendation made to the W.H.O. in 2001, based on the resolution unanimously made at the end of the International Conference on Preventive Cardiology + 4^th International Heart Health Conference, Osaka, Japan. 26-30 May, 2001, (whereat I presented the following TWO papers, and these may not be directly relevant to the subject being discussed here. 

1. Palaniappan, V.M. (2001). A new classification of obesity standards, based on the hardness of calf, in relation to various non-communicable diseases. Paper presented at the International Conference on Preventive Cardiology + 4^th International Heart Health Conference, Osaka, Japan. 26-30 May, 2001. 8pp.

2. Palaniappan, V.M. (2001). Demonstration of a method for the assessment calf hardness (cH) of people for the diagnosis of non-communicable diseases.  Poster paper presented at the International Conference on Preventive Cardiology + 4^th International Heart Health Conference, Osaka, Japan. 26-30 May, 2001.)

RESEARCH SURVEY –2 

Title of the paper: 

Evaluation of the findings reported in the paper dealing with the effect of salt on blood pressure in humans. 

Purpose:  To evaluate the validity of the result obtained in the above study (or, to re-confirm the result obtained through Survey-1). 

Method:  The blood samples of 10 thousand people who came to hospital with normal blood pressure, and another 10 thousand who had high blood pressure were obtained and tested for their salt contents. 

Result:   All those people who had high blood pressure, without exception, had high salt content in their blood.  At the same time, all those who had only normal pressure, also without exception, had much less salt content.  This result also was statistically significant to the same level as that of the previous study. 

Conclusion:  Based on the results of this study, the findings reported in the previous survey should be considered correct.  Therefore, the earlier recommendations given to people and the food manufacturers can be re-emphasised.   

In order to keep up good health, everybody should avoid enriching his or her food with salt.  If salt addition can be totally stopped, it would be all the more better, for the salt content naturally present in the vegetable and food items of animal origin should be adequate enough for the wellbeing of the body. 

RESEARCH SURVEY – 3 

Title of the paper:

The relationship between excessive salt intake through enriched food and subsequent development of cardiovascular (i.e., heart) diseases in obese people.   

Purpose:  To find out if there is any relationship between salt intake through food and the development of cardiovascular diseases and related death. 

Method:  A total of 2600 obese and 6600 non-obese people were considered for the study.  The quantity of salt these people consumed, the salt content in their blood, the exact details concerning the death of these people over a period of 20 years, etc. were collected according to acceptable scientific procedures.

 Result:  Some 900 people died of cardiovascular diseases.  Some 2500 deaths occurred due to all causes.  Among the obese people, 90% increase in death due to stroke, 45% increase in death due to coronary heart diseases, and 60% increase in death due to cardiovascular diseases occurred.  However, salt intake through food was not significantly associated with cardiovascular diseases in the non-obese, THIN people (although they took MORE salt, similar to the obese).

Conclusion:  The study clearly showed that high salt intake is definitely associated with an increased development of cardiovascular disease in obese people.  Therefore, it would be best for the obese to avoid salt consumption through enriched food.

*  *  *  *  *  *

THE INFERENCE
 

All the above researches clearly show that salt is dangerous for people. Increasingly more and more health-oriented researchers and associated medical and non-medical personnel have been advocating the general public at large to reduce the salt intake through diets.   

Every cardiologist appears to be adding on a new information to strengthen this concept, and as a result, literature on this subject has become so vast that it may even branch off as a newer discipline of health science called “Saltology”. The statistical backing such literature has is by no means questionable.  

After reading all the above, do you still have any doubt about the ill effects of salt on humans?  I am sure you are totally convinced!  

BUT I AM NOT!  

I alone (along with my patients), totally defy the above findings.   

Even before I could say anything about my salt consumption details, I would like to present here a few data related to my health condition. 

I am a non-obese person by Body Mass Index (BMI) standard, weighing 63 kg, stand 169 cm. tall, and am aged 62*.  My systolic pressure varies between 110 and 121 mmHg, diastolic reading measures 67, and pulse, 65.   

(* This article formed Chapter 12 in my book “Heart Problems, Diabetes, and Related Diseases”, published in 2001. NOW, it is 2016, and my current readings are 59 kg, aged 77, with systolic pressure 127, diastolic 75, and pulse 65.) 

The analysis of my blood electrolytes shows 136 mmol/L of sodium (the optimum range being 135 – 145), and 96 mmol/L of chloride (the optimum range being 95 – 110).     

My mother is 93, alive* and healthy.  My father died at his 50^th age, of heart attack, and he had diabetes mellitus Type II.  (*My mother is no more now, and she died at her 99^th age, in 2007.) 

I am very healthy*, eating four meals a day that are rich in salt, sugar, and oil - without any diet restriction whatsoever. 

(* I don’t even wear spectacles to read, drive my car, or watch TV) 

My daily and favourite breakfast* consists of one egg (until l998, I was taking 2 eggs daily) omelette and three slices of bread, with normal coffee prepared using full cream condensed milk.   

Twice daily, I take homemade curd/yoghurt (‘thayiru’) prepared from full cream milk, with rice.   

(* Nowadays, I have been taking 2 slices of white bread, and 2 eggs every third day. Mutton and chicken @ one serving of each every alternate day, fish, once a week, in addition to yoghurt, ice-cream and the rest, as usual.)  

My daily working (with computer, attending to patients, reading a lot, watching TV programmes, cooking my own food, house-keeping, etc.) duration ranges between 12 and 16 hours, and I don’t do any form of exercise that would induce sweating, including walking for the sake of keeping fit. 

I am a ‘saltaholic’ - one of those who consume far too much of salt compared to most health conscious people.   

The normal salt intake of a person (as per Intersalt Study Report) appears to be between 8 and 12 gms/day.  In contrast, my normal daily intake should measure anything between 15 and 25 mg, or so.  I am very liberal at it. 

In fact, this has been the normal intake of all our family members.  We ‘smear’ potato chips, guava and such fruits in salt.  All of us in our family find the salt content of most of the foods served in restaurants are inadequate, and we have the habit of asking for more salt to add on to such foods.  We often complain that most of the food manufacturers these days are not adding enough salt that their food tastes bland and hopeless, and we don’t buy such foods any more*. 

(* All these descriptions fit all my patients as well.) 

The above statement, while it is true, may sound nonsensical to all health advocates.  Please bear with me for an altogether opposed viewpoint in this connection.   

Being a consultant and researching ecologist, let me see if I can convince you with adequate evidences to prove my point that increased salt consumption in fact (a) promotes good health, (b) does not contribute to any major ill effects of any kind,  (c) has no relevance of any kind to age of a person, and (d) has nothing to do with obesity. 

Please do the following simple experiment (at least in theory / imagination): 

Take a drinking glass (about 300-ml capacity).

Pour 10 ml of plain water into it (or 1/8^th of the glass).

Add 1 gram (about a pinch) of salt into it, and stir.

Drink 1 ml (just a sip) to taste it. 

It will be very strongly salty, and you would feel like vomiting. 

At this, with the knowledge you have on the dangers of salt consumption, please answer the following question: 

If you are to drink all the 10-ml of the strongly salted water once every hour from 8 am to 8 p.m., daily for next one year, what will happen to you? 

You are bound to say that drinking such a strongly salted water 12 times a day for a year would certainly raise the blood pressure in any person, and that would lead to death.       

Let us continue the above experiment: 

We have 9 ml of strongly salted water left in the glass.

Now, add another 290 ml of plain water to it, and stir.

Drink about 10 ml to taste it. 

How do you find it? 

You would find it grossly under-salted, or almost unsalted.   

You may even say that it requires a little more of the salt to make it tastier.   

At this, please answer the same set of questions again: 

If you were to drink this dilution 12 times a day, would you develop high blood pressure?  Do you think that would lead you to death in any manner related to heart? 

When I put up such a question to my Group Therapy participants – my patients, all of them would straightaway and unanimously agree that they would not develop any hypertension or heart disease related to high salt intake.   

They would themselves continue to say that salt is not the culprit, but inadequate water consumption is!   

Let us do one last experiment, in the right manner, and do the blood analysis to evaluate the validity of my hypothesis: 

One last experiment to test the effect of salt: 

Gather 600 (or 6,000) people.  Divide them into six groups: A, to F, and control their salt and water intake, and also their urine output in the following manner, and then obtain samples of their blood and test them for salt.  The results would then confirm the correctness of all my statements.        

Group	A	B	C	D	E	F
Water 1gl=300ml	2 glasses (600ml)	2 glasses	8 glasses   (2400 ml)	8 glasses	14 lasses   (4200 ml)	20 glasses   = 6L daily
No. Urine  per  Day	Twice	Twice	8 times	Twice	14 times	20 times
Salt	No Added Salt	10 grams    added	10 grams    added	No added salt	20 grams    added	20 grams   added
Expected Results in Blood	Within the normal limit	A very high salt content in blood	Within normal range	High salt in blood	Within normal range	Very Low salt content  in blood.

In other words, based on the last experiment, you can take plenty of salt, provided you drink plenty of water and urinate all of it.  It will get diluted, get out of your body AFTER contributing its good deeds as an important electrolyte to your brain, and would do no harm to you at all!. 

You should not take salt, if you don’t intend to drink enough water.  If you took salt without drinking enough water, it will get concentrated, and that will, of course, give you adverse effects.  

This is so because, anything in excess is bound to become toxic.  The proverbial saying in Tamil is “even God-given medicine will become poisonous if taken in excessive quantity”. 

Without any doubt, all truly obese people do not drink enough water.  I have reported elaborately and in detail about the quantity of water people consume (see Palaniappan, 1998, 2000 a & b).   

The obese people belonging to what has been categorised as Type IV, with calf hardness (cH) of 100%, take only 2 glasses (or less) of water daily.  Even small quantities of salt are bound to become concentrated in the blood of these people!

The story does not end there.   

Those people, who drink plenty of water, void plenty of urine.

It is common knowledge that urine takes with it plenty of salt.   

Thus, most of the unwanted salt gets eliminated from the body through urine.  Therefore, salt-related hypertension or any of the heart diseases will NOT develop at all.   

Is it not true that all physiologists say that our body has a capacity to throw away all the unwanted excesses through urine?   

In fact, the megadose therapists advocate high dosages of vitamins and minerals based only on this theory.  In fact, salt is more readily soluble in water than some of the substances that are expected to get eliminated by urine.

The above being the case, how could it be possible for a human body to accumulate salt to a level that is far beyond its need for efficient functioning?   

Body would never develop a mechanism that would deteriorate its own existence*.  If argued otherwise, then it would form a challenge against the understanding of the theory of evolution.  It would be defying the Laws of Nature. 

(* All the so-called Auto-Immune Diseases are not self-destructing for no reason. They are the best means for survival, as a last resort when everything else to guard the body fails. I have explained this elsewhere, in several of my publications.) 

The above statement is evident from the observation made by Dr. He (1999*) and his associates in their study conducted to trace the effect of dietary sodium on overweighing people.  They did not get any significant correlation between the development of hypertension, heart diseases and death and increased salt consumption in the non-overweight persons.  (* My publication is dated 1998.)  

At this, it is very important to remember that those who drink plenty of water and urinate almost all of it, will keep as non-overweight people all the time (Palaniappan, 1998, 2000).  

As mentioned earlier, the truly obese people urinate only twice (or thrice) a day, and that too they void very little urine.  Since little water and small quantity of urine cannot remove all of the salts consumed as well as other toxic substances from the body of the obese person, they contribute to the development of not only hypertension*, thickening and hardening of blood vessels (atherosclerosis, strokes) and heart diseases (heart blockages and attacks), but also thyroid problems, kidney stones, prostate problems, breast lumps, cysts, fibroids, and cancer.   

(* The truth remains that ALL those people who drink abundant water (say, 3L, 4L or more) and urinate more often (e.g., (>12 times daily), do develop LOW BLOOD PRESSURE, because of the EXCESSIVE DEPLETION of even the needed SALT!  I cure Low Systolic Pressure cases by REDUCING the water intake.)  

Goitre (swelling of the thyroid gland, due to iodine insufficiency) and Hashimoto’s type of hypothyroidism would develop in the truly obese people who suffer from the inadequacy of iodine caused by the avoidance of consuming salt, fish, cabbage, agar-agar jelly, etc.   

If the obese were to consume iodine-enriched salt, without increasing water intake and urination, they would not suffer of hypothyroidism, but would only develop hypertension and other heart diseases.

The non-overweight people, otherwise categorised as the Skeletal and the Thin, normally do not develop hypothyroidism; instead, they would get hyperthyroidism, and become hyperactive because of the ‘mediocre excess’ of iodine, for they always take plenty of salt. 

As a result, the Skeletal people may not be able to put on any weight at all!  Instead, the more food they eat, the more will be the hyperactive state of such people. 

The cure for them should be carried out in the direction of trying to find a proper method for the elimination of iodine from their body, coupled with the consumption of iodine-free salt. 

In addition, the hyperactive people should not consume at all any of the iodine-rich foods such as cabbage, including ‘sea-foods’ (e.g., fish, anchovies, crabs, prawns, agar-agar jelly, etc.).

I should, for the benefit of the public at large, narrate a true story at this juncture, but in a different posting in this BLOG.  Please read it, for it would reveal a lot of useful information: That is a true situation that happened in my life.

*   *   *   *   *   *

OK, friends,

I sincerely hope that all of you would take MORE salt in your diet, and also DRINK ADEQUATE WATER (e.g., 2 L or more), and URINATE nearly all of it (through about 8 urinations / day), without losing it as profuse sweat. THAT will keep your the functioning of your brain and nervous system at their best.

With best wishes,

Dr. Palani, Ph.D.

REFERENCES CITED / BIBLIOGRAPHY
(MY PUBLICATIONS: Selected items only) 

Palaniappan, V.M. (1998).  Ecological Healing System - Theses and Hypotheses-I:   Obesity: Causes, Prevention and Cures.  Ecohealth Sdn. Bhd. ISBN 967-9988-05-8.  471pp.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2000).  Ecological Healing System – II:  Health Problems: Diagnose Yourself.  Ecohealth Sdn. Bhd. ISBN 967-9988-06-6.  148pp.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2000).  Ecological Healing System – III: Your Sex Potentials. Ecohealth Sdn. Bhd.  ISBN 967-9988-07-4.  181pp.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2001).  Ecological Healing System – IV: Heart Problems, Diabetes, and Related Diseases. Ecohealth Sdn. Bhd. ISBN 967-9988-08-2.  286pp. 

Palaniappan, V.M. (2001). A new classification of obesity standards, based on the hardness of calf, in relation to various Poster Session presented at the International Conference on Preventive Cardiology + 4th International Heart Health Conference, Osaka, Japan. 26-30 May, 2001. 8 pp.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2001). Demonstration of a method for the assessment calf hardness (cH) of people for the diagnosis of non-communicable diseases.  Poster paper presented at the International Conference on Preventive Cardiology + 4th International Heart Health Conference, Osaka, Japan. 26-30 May, 2001.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2007). Human Diseases: How and Why do They Occur, and How to Prevent/Cure Them?. Neo Health Care, Kuala Lumpur.336 pp.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2007). Part-2: Under-urination causes type-2 diabetes and heart blockages. Feature article published in BERNAMA National News Agency: Archives: 22.11.2007.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2007). Part-6: Excessive urination contributes to skeletal body, hyperactivity, tension and loss of immunity. Feature article published in BERNAMA National News Agency: Archives: 20.12.2007.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2007). Sex Problems: Causes, Cure and Prevention. Neo Halth Care, Kuala Lumpur. 285pp.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2008). Part-8: Disease causing factors and health keeping procedures, all within a nutshell. Feature article published in BERNAMA National News Agency: Archives: 3.1.2008.

Palaniappan, V.M. 2008. THE TRUE CAUSES OF ALL DISEASES. Neo Health Care: ISBN 978-967-9988-13-0. 192pp. ALSO AVAILABLE AS E-BOOK IN KINDLE& AMAZON.COM 

Palaniappan, V.M. (2013). All about obesity, in a nutshell. ISBN 978-967-9988-18-5. Neo Health Care. 220pp. 

Palaniappan, V.M. 2014, since 2009:  BLOG, INTERNET: http://ecohealingsystem.blogspot. com/  Published 325 ORIGINAL ARTICLES In the area ff Ecological Healing System (EcoTherapy). >125,000 page views. 

Palaniappan, V.M. 2011. DIABETES: CAUSES, CURE, AND PREVENTION. 256 pp. Neo Health Care. ISBN 978-967-9988-15-4.

Palaniappan, V.M. (2014-2015). 60 Talk Shows on Health Care. Vaanavil, ASTRO TV., Malaysia. 

Palaniappan, V.M. (1975-2015). 167 papers/articles in various media: Journals, Magazines, Conference Papers, etc.  (Only few of these were peer-reviewed).   

INDEMNIFICATION:
This paper is meant only for enlightening the RESEARCHERS so that they would begin to re-think and re-design their future research works. I strongly suggest the general public to wait until the World Health Organisation approves my findings as the total truth, and NOT to put to use until then any of the information contained in this article, without the permission of his/her Doctor / Registered Medical Practitioner.  I should not be held responsible for misadventures of any kind.