SODIUM

Salt. It is essential to life, but because our bodies are built to crave salt, modern diets often include too much. The kidneys balance the amount of salt and fluid in the body in order to maintain proper blood pressure. When healthy people eat too much salt, their bodies adjust and the kidneys excrete more sodium. But when the kidneys are damaged, they are less able to excrete sodium so that even normal salt intake can result in an increase in the fluid retained by the body, which causes blood pressure to rise. Controlling salt is vital to controlling hypertension. Because hypertension is the factor that can destroy kidney function most rapidly, restricting salt intake is an important dietary restriction for nearly all CKD patients.

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