Everyone needs to consume salt. No salt = death. But, if you listen to influencers, they're telling you to consume pink (maybe Himalayan) salt, or Irish grey salt, or something else. Should you listen to them?
Salts that aren't white contain other minerals in them that may (or not) be good for you. It depends on the source and, like any other food or beverage, there's the risk of contamination. Chocolate, oatmeal and some other foods contain cadmium. Chocolate, coffee, rice, fish, berries, and anything else that's dried in the sun next to a road will likely have lead in it from vehicular emissions.
But, what can happen if you consume too much salt?
Well, everyone is different and it is impossible to give exact answers, which is different from what the "health" influencers will say. They're always so certain that they have the answers and, whether they're a doctor, scientist, journalist, author, barrista, or something else, they present their perspective as if it's the incontrovertible truth and that there are no other possibilities. They'll also be happy to have you come to one of their very expensive seminars/retreats/classes, buy their books, and/or consume their untested supplements. They're in the business of making money, not helping people, just like all other charlatans.
Unlike them, I'm not going to tell you that you can't trust doctors and scientists. Are there bad ones? Of course. There are bad people in every profession. That doesn't make everyone in that profession bad, right? To believe that is to turn your back on facts and become the victim of the con artists who don't care if they hurt you or cause your death. THEY ONLY WANT YOUR MONEY. These people are more evil than the ones on the phone who trick you into giving them your life savings because they don't simultaneously ruin your health ON PURPOSE.
To get back to my question: if you've got hyponatremia (low sodium), and you don't have a family history of things like hypertension (high blood pressure), angina (chest pains), arrhythmia (palpitations), arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the arteries) and other cardio-vascular diseases (CVD), it'll help improve your hyponatremia. What else it might do, I cannot say. Maybe nothing bad, but it's always a possibility with high consumption of electrolytes when you're not a serious athlete, or sweating a lot.
Electrolytes help you to sweat, as well as other functions related to muscles, etc., but they leave your body with the sweat, which is why your sweat is salty. You have to replenish them, which is why you consume electrolyte drinks. However, electrolyte drinks shouldn't be consumed as a regular drink because too much of a good thing is a bad thing; over-consumption can lead to a dizzying variety of problems, including kidney damage and heart attacks.
But...If your family has a history of CVD, especially if you have some of the above medical problems, salt and sodium may make it worse. I know there are influencers out there who are telling you to consume pink salt, grey salt, baking soda, etc. They are influencers who are selling something. They are profiting by getting you to think they know what they're talking about.
As an aside, salt isn't the only source of sodium, but it comes with its own benefits and dangers; over-consumption is one of the causes of many of the nutritional problems we face these days. You can also get sodium from baked goods, and there are many other foods that have sodium in them that don't need. Sodium can cause erratic heartbeats because it increases electrical conductivity in your heart. Calcium can stop your heart. Every electrolyte that we need hurts us if we consume too much.
I'm not selling anything. I'm not a doctor or dietician. Since they're not certified or registered, and there's no degree required in the USA, you could call me a nutritionist if you like. I'm just someone who has spent the last 2.5 years researching diet and nutrition. I'm smarter than your average bear...and maybe human, too. ;)
Prior to and early in 2022, I was diagnosed with most of those problems AND I have a family history of that kind of CVD. My research has allowed me to better understand that diet is not something temporary: it is a lifestyle change. Yes, there are diets that are meant to be temporary, and are used to achieve a specific goal (e.g. keto was designed to help reduce epileptic seizures and has been proven to do so). But how and what you eat daily is a lifestyle diet. Either way, you shouldn't be thinking of "cheat" days because that may lead you down a path of ever-increasing cheating.
Since then, I've been able to greatly reduce the angina and arrhythmia to the point where I go days or weeks without any sensations. In early 2024, the epiphany happened after I consumed a snack that was high in salt. I had my first painful angina event; before that, the angina always felt like pressure and it happened on either side of my chest - this happened near my heart. I recalled an event when I was a teen where, after being in a river, I found a leach on my leg. I walked to a cafe, grabbed the salt, and poured it in the leach. It shriveled up as all the liquid was sucked out of its body. That's what was happening inside of me. A few days later, after the symptoms had subsided, I tried again and, again, I had angina. I then looked at research about salt and sodium relative to the cardio-vascular system.
What I discovered, and this was a year into my research and was never mentioned aside from hypertension, was that salt and sodium are part of a causal chain. The salt damages the blood vessels' endothelial cells (the cells that line the insides of the vessels) if there's too much, and that can lead to angina and lesions of the blood vessels, which causes plaque to be laid down to bandage the wounds. The sodium causes arrhythmia and hypertension, and one or both causes arteriosclerosis, and I'm sure there's more than just that. Excessive salt consumption can also damage the kidneys, which do not have the ability to heal.
So, do you need to go on a salt bender? Nope. Do athletes need baking soda? Well, unless you need to get an extra 1-2% performance as a high-performance athlete then no, and if there's a family or personal history, absolutely not! Should you consume pink or grey salt? That's up to you as long as you're using it reasonably.
The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300mg/day of sodium but, if you're sensitive, no more than 1,500mg/day. I find that if it's spread throughout the day and I drink a lot of liquids, I can go slightly over 1,500mg, but not by a lot.
Also, keep in mind that drinks like tea, cola, sugary beverages, alcohol, and sodas with phosphoric acid can damage your kidneys, for various reasons. Those with sodium are, obviously, a problem. Beverages with sugar, and alcohol can also damage your liver and lead to diabetes and other metabolic disorders, including urticaria.