Salt Water Cleanse Dangers!
When considering all of the potential health benefits of drinking salt water everyday also consider the dangers.
By far the biggest danger is consuming too much salt in a way that your kidneys can not cope. This is why it’s always better to err on the side of caution and use small amounts of salt at the start.
If you feel any bad changes in your body, you should immediately stop the salt water cleanse.
To really be safe you should consult a medical professional before you start taking the daily warm salt water sole mix. Only proceed if you get the go ahead from a doctor or someone with a medical background.
What is Table Salt?
Before understanding why natural sea salt may be good for you, let’s take a closer look at refined table salt and why it should never be used in your sole water mix.
Basic table salt is the cheapest type of salt that has been bleached and had all its healthy minerals stripped away. This is why it is pure white and comes in uniformly shaped granules.
However, this is very different from the composition of natural salt. The fact that natural salt has not been processed in any way means it contains a lot of trace minerals.
Here are specific reasons why table salt is bad for you:
The big issue with table salt is that it has been stripped of all natural nutrients during the refinement process.
This intense heat treatment means the salt is now technically dead. Dead in the sense that it’s lost a whole host of natural healthy nutrients.
In order to make this “dead” processed salt edible, the salt manufacturer’s begin to add back lots of additives.
Additives include things like fluoride as well as synthetic iodine and a whole host of other anti-caking agents.
The purpose of all these additional substances and anti-caking agents is to make the salt easier to pour i.e.free-flowing. Sadly all of this comes at a cost to your health. For instance, there are 2 additives that are not good for you but routinely added to salt; silica aluminate and ferrocyanide.
It’s been proven that ferrocyanides can cause kidney damage. They are also likely to react with other food additives that are very common in foods to produce other kinds of health issues.
The Dangers Of Refined Table Salt
The previous section has already started to highlight some of the issues with refined table salt. Most of the issues being the process of stripping all of its nutrients and then replacing it with things that can cause harm to your health.
Specifically ingredients like:
Aluminate, which is routinely added to refined process salt and is linked to lots of health issues. For instance, studies show that aluminate is linked to neurological disorders. It’s particularly potent if there is no selenium (that helps your body break aluminate down). Also, note that heavy metals such as aluminum accumulate in your body. And this can lead to further health issues and disorders.
The issue is not only that these harmful compounds are added to table salt. But it’s also that they don’t have any of their original natural healthy minerals.
The fact that these minerals and nutrients are missing means that a critical aspect that balances your blood pressure when you consume salt is gone.
This is also why eating a large amount of refined processed salt is linked to increase in blood pressure.
The final point is bleaching, yes that’s right bleaching. Have you ever stopped to consider why table salt is always so perfectly white? Especially when compared to natural unrefined rock or sea salt. Well refined table salt is white because it’s been bleached by salt manufacturers.
Salt High & Blood Pressure?
High refined salt consumption is closely linked to high blood pressure. This is a condition that is also known as hypertension.
The effect of this is it can weaken your body’s blood vessels and this can lead to life-threatening health complications and conditions.
Some of these conditions can include things like heart attack, stroke, peripheral artery disease, chronic kidney disease, eye damage and aneurysms.
The Journal of Hypertension published a research study, which concluded that simply reducing table salt consumption by 3 grams a day can mean a 10% lower risk of heart disease and a 13% lower risk of stroke.
Is Drinking Salt Water Harmful?
We all know that drinking seawateris not good for the human body and can cause death in extreme cases.
This is mainly because the human kidney is only able to process salt at a lower rate of the amount of salt in sea water.
This means you have to urinate more than you drink, which is impossible.
The result is that you can never drink enough sea water to quench your thirst and eventually die of dehydration despite consuming something that is technically water.
The reason why sole water (or natural salt water) doesn’t kill you is that the amount of salt included in the water is small enough for your kidneys to process.
You also reap health benefits from all the natural healthy nutrients found in natural rock salt.
Sea Salt Health Benefits
Although refined table salt is bad for you, the natural kind is in fact healthy for you in small enough doses. Consuming good quality unrefined salt helps you in a number of different ways.
For instance:
It helps your body balance blood sugar and regulate its metabolism.
It has been shown to boost the immune system and helps to keep your bones strong and more.
In its natural and healthy mineral state, salt also provides different minerals in a form that your body not only recognizes but knows how to use.
Just so you fully understand how mineral rich natural salt is, the gray-ish color present comes from over 80 trace minerals.
The way it remains slightly moist means that it’s able to retain certain minerals in a form that your body can easily absorb.
How To Make Sole Salt Water
- Start with a jar and then fill one-third of it with natural healthy mineral rich salt.
- Now you need to fill this jar with clean fresh drinking water but leave 1 inch at the top of the jar.
- Mix the solution.
- Put a plastic cover over the jar.
- Then leave it to dissolve for 24 hours.
- The salt crystals should be dissolved after 24 hours.
- Your sole water is ready.
The good news is that this sole water mix is unlikely to contain any fungal or bacterial properties so it should last for a long time once created.
Note: you are NOT supposed to drink this solution by itself but add a small spoonful of this to fresh drinking water as outlined in the next section.
How To Take Sole Water
The Sole water you made in the previous step is now your “salt”. Take half a teaspoon of your salt water sole solution and add it to 8oz of fresh drinking water. You can use warm water and ideally you should also use water that is filtered.
You can drink warm salt water everyday and a good time to do this is each morning before you have your breakfast.
Does it taste too salty?
If it does then make sure you dilute it with plain freshwater until it tastes like water with a hint of salt.
Drinking water that is too salty is not good for you and may reverse all the potential health benefits.
On the other hand, if you can hardly taste any salt in the warm salt water solution mix then you can add a little extra sole to the drink.
Trust your senses and listen to your body. The amount of salt that each person needs will vary.
Experts recommend that you also use natural salt for other purposes such as food (at an amount that tastes good). Academic studies show that our ancestors typically consumed around 1.5 – 3 tablespoons of salt each day. It is interesting that this is the amount of daily salt intake that coincides with the lowest risk level of contracting heart disease.
9 Scientific Benefits of Doing a Salt Water Flush
So now we have established that the sole salt water daily detox is not to be done with refined salt but rather natural salt. The best type of salt is something that is natural like rock salt that has not been treated or altered in any way.
Adding natural salt to water creates an electrical charge that the body can absorb.Combining natural salt and water in this way is not a new concept. People have been using it as a form of treatment throughout civilization.
But there is now new scientific evidence that shows it has benefits:
1. Salt Water For Hydration
This might seem like an obvious point but to drink more salt water means you’re generally going to get more hydrated. Taking this on as a routine means that you will generally drink more water too.
And adding a little bit of salt can actually do a lot more good then you think.
For instance, author of “Eat for Heat:A Metabolic Approach to Food and Drink” talks about how drinking too much plain water can create an over-diluted body.
Continually over-diluting your body like this can mean a big strain on your body and it slows down your metabolism. The health of your cells depend on the concentration of electrolytes and minerals.
However, drinking lots of plain water can make your cells become diluted thereby creating a stress response. This stress response can also release adrenaline.
Stone also talks about the way all living creatures have a basic instinctual programming that prevents us from over drinking water.
But when you drink warm saltwater, it helps your body better absorb the water you’re drinking.
2. Salt Water Flush For Constipation
Salt water is good for your digestion because it activates the saliva and glands in your mouth, which releases amylase.
This sparks off the digestive process and the next step happens in the stomach. Natural salt helps to stimulate a protein-digesting enzyme and hydrochloric acid. Both these enzymes are things responsible for helping your body break down food.
Using natural unrefined salt can really help stimulate your stomach acids. This is very helpful because it means your body already starts to secrete hydrochloric acid.
This stomach acid is responsible for killing pathogens like harmful bacteria, yeast and fungi. What’s the result of this? Any protein that you eat becomes easier to digest.
Drinking warm sole salt water can also help to stimulate secretions in your liver and intestinal tract.
All of this helps with digestion, and regularly drinking sole saltwater will increase nutrient absorption while increasing bowel movement regularity.
3. Salt Water Benefits = Less inflammation
8 grams per day or 1.5 teaspoons is what the average healthy adult needs each day. If your body doesn’t get this, it goes into “crisis mode”, which is also called sodium-sparing.
A body that is lacking in enough salt will shift into this state so that it is able to maintain blood pressure and fluid balance.
While your body is trying to recover during this “crisis mode”, it will help you survive but also has negative consequences.
If your low salt intake continues beyond the short term and persists over a longer period, then things can become very serious.
Researchers and experts link long term lack of salt to all kinds of illnesses and chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, cognition loss and metabolic syndrome.
Hence, maintaining a regular healthy level of salt intake will help to reduce inflammation. Not to mention help you avoid all manner of other health issues.
4. Sole Water For Anxiety = Better Sleep
This might be hard to believe but salt is capable of helping you lower your stress, which is one of the reasons for lack of sleep.
This effect is heightened when you consume natural healthy salt along with warm water which is naturally relaxing.
This is according to a research study presented in the Journal of Neuroscience. The study reports on how increasing the amount of sodium (i.e. salt) in your bloodstream helps to reduce your stress levels.
Natural salt is capable of helping you to reduce and better cope with anxiety.
To benefit from this, you should aim to drink warm salt water a little while before you go to sleep.
5. Salt Water Benefits = Good For Detox
We all know that water is a good way to detox because water is so good for you and doesn’t add anything unhealthy to your body.
In fact, there probably isn’t a form of detox that doesn’t include consuming water of some kind.
However, to really maximize the detoxing potential of water then adding a mineral-rich aspect makes this work even better.
Sole salt water helps your body detox with natural antibacterial minerals. These healthy minerals can help your body remove harmful bacteria.
It’s also good for those that suffer with poor digestion. This is because drinking warm salt water helps to cleanse your digestive tract and stimulates easier bowel movements.
This along with a diet that is rich in fiber helps to force all the bowel waste out. If you don’t believe this, then consider a research study conducted on 225 elderly patients.
The study shows that patients that consume a substance that is similar to the sole salt water found it to be good. These elderly patients drank a sodium phosphate flush (similar to a sole flush) and at lease 91% said it was effective and would use it again.
6. Salt Water Benefits = Better Bone Health
A big source of poor bone health issues and illnesses like osteoporosis is a lack of calcium and other minerals that your bones need. Drinking warm Sole salt water can help improve your bone health, especially as it has an alkalinizing effect.
Have you heard a bunch of online rumours that consuming salt actually causes osteoporosis? Well it’s not true!
There is a study in the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology that explains the truth behind this.
There is no sound evidence for the idea that an average healthy adult increases their risk of osteoporosis by consuming the standard 9 grams per day.
And this refers to regular everyday refined unhealthy processed table salt. Since regular unrefined table salt doesn’t cause osteoporosis, then you certainly have nothing to worry about with the healthier natural salt.
7. Salt Water Benefits = Good Skin Health
It’s a fact, consuming natural healthy salt is good for your skin because of the minerals it contains.
For instance, if you want your skin to have fewer skin infections and fight acne then your body needs chromium. Or is it smooth clean looking skin that you want? Then your body needs a healthy dose of sulfur.
Sulfur is also good for things like rashes, eczema and dry scalp. All of these are incidentally the result of a sulfur deficiency.
Are you trying to heal a wound faster? Then boost your immune system with zinc and a big part of this is that zinc helps your body regulate your oil glands.
All of these minerals are present in healthy mineral-rich natural salt. The bottom line is that drinking a small healthy dose of this on a regular basis will do good things for your skin.
8. Salt Water Benefits = Mineral Balance
This is based on work by a 2-time Nobel Prize winner and academic researcher Dr. Linus Pauling. He says that you can link almost every disease and illness back to some sort of mineral deficiency.
This claim stands up to further scrutiny because minerals are the foundation of good health.
For instance, things like enzymes and amino acids would not work if you’re lacking in vital minerals. ‘No minerals’ also mean that the nutrients and vitamins in your body will not easily break down.
Sadly, mineral deficiencies are a lot more common today because of modern day issues like highly refined poor diets and depleted soil.
All of this means that mineral rich sole water with mineral-rich healthy salt provides you with a good amount of minerals. These vital minerals include things like titanium, zinc, magnesium, bismuth, selenium, chromium and barium.
9. Drinking Salt Water To Lose Weight
If you’re a regular on this blog then you know that one of the most popular articles on this site is research showing how water can help you lose weight.
The best part about taking the 30 day water challenge is that all you have to do is add extra water to your diet. Doing this means you can lose weight without necessarily changing your diet.
This is a big part of the appeal and why the 30 day water challenge has a higher success rate than other diets.
The water diet works for many reasons and one of them being that water acts as a hunger suppressant. Also, you generally eat less food when you consume more water.
Now to make water for weight loss work even better, use some natural salt sole water. Drinking warm salt water can act as a body cleanse and may even help you lose some body fluids.
However, if you are really serious about losing a lot of weight, focus on reducing your calorie intake and increase exercise. Drinking natural salt water can only ever work to compliment your existing efforts.
Which Salt Is Healthiest?
Avoid refined table salt at all costs and don’t get suckered into buying salt that looks “natural” but isn’t. There are all sorts of salt in the shops that claim to be natural and healthy but always make sure you read the label.
Especially as there are some “refined” sea salts so it’s very important to make sure the label says “unrefined”.
The best type of salt to use for a salt water flush mix is either Celtic grey sea salt or pink Himalayan salt. They are full of good healthy nutrients.
Another salt you might want to consider is Colima Sea Salt, which is not available in most local stores but you can get it online.
Please note: It is important to exercise personal responsibility and make sure you consult with a professional healthcare provider before you start this new daily routine.
Scientific References
Resources used to write this article:
Outcome of a public consultation on the Scientific Opinion of the EFSA Panel. A panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) on Dietary Reference Values for sodium. Intermediate draft and related protocol. EFSA Supporting Publications 14:12.
Weinberger MH, Fineberg NS, Fineberg SE, Weinberger M. Salt sensitivity, pulse pressure, and death in normal and hypertensive humans. Hypertension 2001;37:429–32.
Chang HY, Hu YW, Yue CS, et al. Effect of potassium-enriched salt on cardiovascular mortality and medical expenses of elderly men. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2006 Jun;83(6):1289–1296
He J, Whelton PK. Salt intake, hypertension and risk of cardiovascular disease: an important public health challenge. Int J Epidemiol 2002; 31: 327–331, discussion 331–332
Alderman MH. Salt, blood pressure and health: a cautionary tale. Int J Epidemiol 2002; 31: 311–315.
B. Reeve, R. Magnusson. . (2015) Reprint of: Food reformulation and the (neo)-liberal state. New strategies for strengthening voluntary salt reduction programs in the UK and USA. Public Health 129:8, 1061-1073.
Ha, Sung Kyu. “Dietary Salt Intake and Hypertension.” Electrolytes & Blood Pressure : E & BP 12.1 (2014): 7–18. PMC. Web. 28 Dec. 2017.
MacGregor GA, deWardener HE. Salt, Diet and Health. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge1998.
O’Brien, Eoin. Salt—too much or too little? The Lancet , Volume 388 , Issue 10043 , 439 – 440
Denton D, Weisinger R, Mundy NI et al. The effect of increased salt intake on blood pressure of chimpanzees. Nat Med 1995;1:1009–16.
Whelton PK, Appel LJ, Sacco RL, et al. Sodium, blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease: further evidence supporting the American Heart Association sodium reduction recommendations. Circulation. 2012 Dec 11;126(24):2880–2889