Salt-loading?

[Discogs_discogs]

I read someone here mentioning that they consume large amounts of salt. Has that been found beneficial in PD? Is this why? :

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articl...

And

reddit.com/r/Parkinsons/com...

And

google.com/amp/s/neuroscien...

And

researchgate.net/publicatio...

[park_bear]

Very interesting. I caution others interested in this topic that the first link in the post demonstrates association, not causation. There may be some unidentified common cause that results in both less dyskinesia and high sodium. High salt consumption is known to cause an increase in blood pressure, which has a definite downside.

An example of how this can go very wrong is the association of low uric acid levels with worse Parkinson's. It turns out that these are associated because people who take levodopa most frequently consume less protein and therefore have lower uric acid levels. So worse Parkinson's results in lower uric acid levels and not the other way around. Some investigators who should have known better failed to realize this. They embarked upon a phase three trial of increasing uric acid levels, which was halted early for futility after it made Parkinson's worse. I discussed this matter in further detail here: healthunlocked.com/cure-par...

If someone wants to try sodium loading as an experiment, they should track their blood pressure to make sure it does not get too high.

[MarionP in reply to park_bear]

Yeah intervening variables, the old why do people's triglycerides spike in the summer, does hot weather make you fatter etc., but because people ate a lot more ice cream and popsicles and soda and hot dogs at ball games, that was done in the '60s as an illustration of spurious correlation...

I think at least one person, maybe the one on Reddit, talked about significant hyponatremia plus taking a blood pressure medication, I didn't understand exactly why the particular medication was chosen... I didn't read every study but the first one I read it had a reference that got into mechanisms in a paper done 2016 and that looked pretty feasible... If you track down the papers in the reference section and read those you can get, which is a large significant important part of any research paper, that reference section, there seems to be some sand there. Not a terrible idea based on the mechanisms suggested in that reference section 2016 paper...interesting.

[JayPwP in reply to park_bear]

Isn't the high salt high BP only in the presence of high insulin?

[park_bear in reply to JayPwP]

No. Ingesting salt requires the body to keep a sufficient volume of blood plasma to prevent excess sodium concentration, thereby elevating blood pressure. Over time the salt will be excreted, but this can be counteracted by ingestion of additional salt.

[7springshollow]

My blood sodium is low so I eat a lot of salt. The Dr thinks it's low due to high water intake from having to take my medicine every 2 hours.

[park_bear in reply to 7springshollow]

I was acquainted with someone who had congenitally low sodium. She needed to intake a lot of salt to keep her blood pressure up. Otherwise she experienced extreme fatigue from too low blood pressure.

[bassofspades]

I found this book intiguing, although it doesnt pertain specifically to Parkinsons

a.co/d/dyYvaQr

[00Mark]

My blood sodium levels dropped precipitously after starting Venlaflaxine, an SNRI, and I had to come off it. This despite having quite a high salt content in my diet. Now trying a similar drug, Duloxetine, and hoping it doesn't cause similar problems.

My point being, medication can screw with your sodium levels, which might be a factor here?