Low sodium & high blood pressure

[Maureen]

I saw Forks Over Knives at age 58 and became vegan, then whole foods, plant based. 7 months later I was diagnosed w uterine cancer and had surgery two months later. At age 59 I had 2 heart attacks. I have always had slightly lower than normal sodium per my blood work, likely since I didn't add salt to foods. Since my heart attack I gave up nuts, avocados and oil as per Dr Esselstyn's book. My blood pressure was good, about 120/75. However, now my Dr says my sodium and chlorine are well below normal and I've been told to add salt to my foods. Lately my blood pressure has been above normal. My question is: how can I increase my sodium without increasing my blood pressure?

[JeffN]

I saw Forks Over Knives at age 58 and became vegan, then whole foods, plant based. 7 months later I was diagnosed w uterine cancer and had surgery two months later. At age 59 I had 2 heart attacks. I have always had slightly lower than normal sodium per my blood work, likely since I didn't add salt to foods. Since my heart attack I gave up nuts, avocados and oil as per Dr Esselstyn's book. My blood pressure was good, about 120/75. However, now my Dr says my sodium and chlorine are well below normal and I've been told to add salt to my foods. Lately my blood pressure has been above normal. My question is: how can I increase my sodium without increasing my blood pressure?

I have no idea what "well below the normal" means.

Numbers fluctuate. I would never want to respond to any single number without seeing a trend over time. Different labs have different normal ranges. There are also always outliers. Your normal may be a little below (or above) what is considered normal.

Serum sodium, is not directly related so dietary sodium intake.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 000394.htm

So, if someone has been diagnosed with low serum sodium several times, there are other issues going on that need to be addressed and if are not being addressed, can lead to bigger issues down the road. .

Causes of low serum sodium include:

Burns
Congestive heart failure
Diarrhea
Diuretic medications, which increase urine output
Kidney diseases
Liver cirrhosis
Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH)
Vomiting
Cancers

Treatments vary depending on the cause but dietary sodium is not a treatment for low sodium serum.

You may want to address this with your MD.

In Health
Jeff