Bill, I remember some time ago that you stated that you actually wrote a paper on why a high sodium intake in not detrimental from a health perspective and why bodybuilders may actually benefit from a higher sodium intake. Free free to be scientific, etc as I am writing an article on several nutritional myths and wanted to hit on this.
Anyone else with valuable info to provide, feel free to do so. If you can provide a reference with the info you provide, that would be ideal. Thanks everyone.
Joel, although i have studied the positive and negatives of sodium quite a while ago,I can tell you all my clients increase their sodium intake.Unfortunately those research papers are stored 2 hours away from me right now so i cant provide exact references.I believe Dr.Connelly had something positive to say about sodium in Body RX (probably referenced)and if you go to Scott Abels website their should be an article on sodium (not referenced).In Antonio’s Supplement Review,I beleive their was lots of references on sodium and hydration (havent gone through that book in a while but im positive that it was discussed).Not sure what exactly your trying to uncover,but i have a paper (smewhere around here) that in a low sodium state, Alpha2 recepters are upregulated and down regulated in a sodium sufficient state,I guess this is one of the mechanisms of why it acts as a positive nutrient partitioning agent.Let me know if I can be of further help.
Hey, thanks for the help; appreciated. I basically want to unveil the myth a high sodium intake causes high blood pressure in healthy individuals. The only people who may need to consider their sodium intake are individual who have already been diagnosed with high blood pressure. Lowering their sodium intake will have benefits for 1/4 of these people sincer only about 25% of the population is salt sensitive. The other 3/4’s BP will not significantly lower. Also, it’s important to recognize that keeping sodium high will not elevate their BP condition or make it worse, but lowering may provide benefits for ~1/4 of individuals who already have a BP condition. Basically, it has no neg effects on healthy individuals.
Secondly, I want to state why keeping sodium intake high is actually beneficial for health individuals/athletes/bodybuilders. I guess I would be hitting on how keeping sodium high yields a positive electrolyte balance which is essential to hydration and also I remember reading somewhere that it, coupled with potassium, increases blood flow to the working muscles (the pump). I want to brush up on the physiology behind these two things and be able to adequatly explain it in the article...doesn't have to be in depth at all, but i want to adequatly explain things.
If there are other benefits that I am missing, then I would love to include those...any help is appreciated.