 What's the number one benefit of sodium? Basically, without it, you shrivel up and die. Yay, I guess. Salt fosters a happy, healthy balance of electrolytes and hydration in your body. That's right. Salt can actually help you from becoming dehydrated, which can actually help prevent dizziness, cramps, and fatigue. And the same goes for your mouth. Does that make sense? Have you ever heard of or tried to wash or rinse your mouth out with salt water? Well, if you haven't. Here's why it's awesome. Salt rinses are great for helping with gum disease, sore throats, infections, and mouth sores and wounds. Salt rinsing helps ease oral inflammation and health so much that it's been proven to be as effective as various oral rehydration solutions. Salt water also helps to alkalize your mouth, balance in your pH levels, which helps improve your oral health. So if you don't want to buy a mouthwash, then just grab a half a teaspoon of salt and some water and start swishing. Wow. That's pointing at thyroid benefits. Check to see if you're getting iodized table salt, which simply means you're getting salt with iodine added. And iodine is essential to proper thyroid function. So if you're looking at some sea salts or rock salts that don't have iodine, they aren't going to be as helpful for your thyroid. As salts make benefit for the thyroid is the iodine that's added to help regulate thyroid function. But the other main reason that iodine is added to salt is that it helps prevent goiter, which is a swelling of the thyroid gland. Now the only knocks against iodized salt is that apparently it makes pickled foods taste kind of nasty. And a lot of people find that it can also add a little bit of a metallic taste. So if you want these benefits, you kind of have to deal with that. Blood pressure benefits. You might be asking yourself at this point, isn't the main knock against salt that it's really, really bad for your blood pressure? You are correct. But many people don't realize that salt is essential for helping people with low blood pressure. And having the correct amount of salt for you actually helps to keep your blood pressure in a good place. So if you're one of those people who has hypotension, then salt is definitely your friend. It's only when you overindulge or are already salt sensitive for any reason that you start running into problems with high blood pressure. For more information, watch this video right here. Cystic fibrosis benefits. The strange thing about cystic fibrosis is that it causes people to lose more salt than normal. So for that alone, it makes sense that you're going to need enough salt if you've got this problem. Of course, it varies between people, so you're going to need to talk to your doctor about exactly how much you need. But there have been cases where people with cystic fibrosis needed up to six grams of sodium per day, which means upwards of 10 grams of salt. Digestion benefits. Salt is one of the few foods that helps you make hydrochloric acid, which is intrinsic to digesting food and helps prevent bloating, gas, heartburn, and indigestion. Salt also helps you absorb more nutrients from your food. Salt also helps to create natural sodium bicarbonate, which also helps to regulate gut health and improves digestion. Skin and hair health. It's no wonder so many skin and hair products promote salt's benefits. Sea salt can detox and exfoliate your skin and help provide nutrients that are beneficial to fight signs of aging. Sea salt and rock salt have both been proven to help reduce the symptoms of eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, and acne in many people. Rock salt can also help remove extra dirt and impurities from your hair, while also stopping dandruff, hard water damage, and hair fall. Diabetes benefits. This is another tricky area for salt. As in and of itself, salt can help maintain the body's ability to metabolize glucose and keep your insulin levels more stable. And as it can be beneficial for blood pressure levels in the right amount, salt can also be helpful in preventing type 2 diabetes. What salt really needs right now is a good PR agent. It is perhaps the best thing I've seen in the last six months. If you have 60 seconds, I'd like to share the idea with you. Both the American Diabetes Association and Diabetes UK say to really limit your salt, which is kind of true. But you still need salt to stay in a healthy place. I'm just here to be in salt's corner and let you know it's not some evil villain that some people say it is. Here's a few other unique problems salt's good for. Salt can combat sunstroke. It can help with hyponatremia, otherwise known as water intoxication. And it's great for chronic rhinocinositis. That's a fun name. Using it as a nasal irrigation can also help with various sinus problems as well. Salt is even used in hospital IVs to help things like dehydration, heart failure, and acute diarrhea. Okey-dokey, the side effects. Now I've got a lot of this in my video on how healthy salt is for you. But here's the basics. I've already mentioned how the big knock against sodium or salt is that it's bad for your blood pressure or heart health. But this is only the case if you're having way too much. There are studies that show if you don't have enough sodium, you're more at risk from heart disease and death than if you have too much. There are also some massive studies that say as soon as you start consuming more than four grams of salt per day, your chances of experiencing various side effects increases. One particular study found that on the people that covered, they had an average 6% increase in heart disease cases per each extra gram of sodium they had per day. Overuse of salt can also raise your chances of getting an enlarged heart, heart failure, kidney disease, kidney stones, osteoporosis, stomach cancer, and strokes. And while, yes, salt is beneficial when consumed in proper amounts, having too much salt can cause water retention in a bad way and oddly, make you more thirsty as well. So can you actually overdose on salt? Yes, but it's pretty darn hard to do it. A 150 pound person would need to have at least 35 to 70 grams of salt. That's two to four tablespoons. I like my food salty, but yeah, that's a little ridiculous. If you want more details about how salt is good or bad for you, definitely watch this video next. People with low blood pressure, blood pressure. For helping people with low blood pressure, blood pressure, what's blood pressure? Blood pressure, blood pressure. Ah, people don't realize that them.