It is essential that Americans follow guidelines reguarding nutrient intake. Consuming a different amount, depending on the nutrient, can have detrimental effects to health. Specifically, sodium and potassium play a large role in the diet. Consuming an insuffient amount of sodium could have dangerous side effects such as muscle weakness or cramps, fatigue, or nausea. On the other hand, research has indicated that too much sodium can lead to increased risk to various health complications because of the increased blood pressure since more water is stored because of the increasd salt. Complications include stroke, heart failure, kidney disease, and stomach cancer. Additionally, potassium plays an essential role in the diet. Potassium plays a
critical role in ensuring the heart muscle beats properly, and also helps to regulate blood pressure. Because of this, low levels of potassium can cause severe weakness in cellular processes, which would be paired with side effects of tireness, numbness, nausea, and palpitations. On the other hand, too much potassium can lead to changes in heart rthym. After discoverning the importance of sodium and potassium, reasearchers have incated important guidelines for intake: Less and 2300 mg for sodium and more than 4700 mg for potassium. Additionally, individuals with hypertension, or high blood pressure, are advised to consume less than 1500 mg a day because of the strong link between high blood pressure, salt intake, and health complications. Understanding these levels can help the body function optimally.
The book Salt, Sugar, and Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us discusses the danger of food with its readers. The dangers of food discussed in the book are the ingredients of Salt, Sugar and Fat in the food individuals consume on a daily basis. Producers use these ingredients to their advantage to get the consumers bliss point. The bliss point attained is used by the food giants to achieve a profit. However due to research on the health risks of these ingredients food companies are strategizing in order to maintain their profit and earn more of a profit.
Vicki is a 42-year-old African American woman who was diagnosed with Hypertension a month ago. She has been married to her high school sweetheart for the past 20 years. She is self-employed and runs a successful insurance agency. Her work requires frequent travel and Vicki often has to eat at fast food restaurants for most of her meals. A poor diet that is high in salt and fat and low in nutrients for the body and stress from her job are contributing factors of Vicki’s diagnosis of hypertension. This paper will discuss the diagnostic testing, Complementary and Alternative Medicine treatments, the prognosis for hypertension, appropriate treatment for Vicki, patient education, and potential barriers to therapy that Vicki may experience.
How does this history of high blood pressure demonstrate the problem description and etiology components of the P.E.R.I.E. process? What different types of studies were used to establish etiology or contributory cause?
High sodium diet: Too much sodium causes fluid retention which increases the workload of the heart. The reason sodium causes water retention is because water moves from low concentrations to high concentrations. Water follows salt so when too much salt is consumed it draws the water from the blood into the tissue.
Together extra-renal factors (insulin, epinephrine, aldosterone) and renal factors maintain a normal potassium plasma concentration in the body. The extra-renal mechanisms are responsible for moving potassium into the intracellular compartment. The renal mechanisms are responsible for chronic maintenance of body potassium content. When these mechanisms are functioning correctly, large intake of potassium has a minor and insignificant effect on the potassium concentration in the plasma. [5&6]
"Potassium: Heart Benefits and Side Effects." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. (This source is credible because it is a medical cite that discusses halth benefits or conditions).
Proper nutrition is important in maintaining a long and healthy life. Most Americans are rushed due to their busy work schedules, and do not take the time to plan their diets properly. Like me, most Americans are unaware of the importance of eating a healthy diet and consuming too many foods without the proper nutrients. Throughout my life, I have been fortunate. I have not had any major health problems, and have been able to consume most foods without having to worry about gaining weight.
Salt is the topic and there is lots of evidence that too much salt, which is sodium in your diet is dangerous for your health according to NZ Nutrition Foundation (2013) this is because a high sodium diet will increase your chances of getting high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease. The World Health Organisation has a requirement to reduce at people consume because it is confirmed that Sodium is a contributor to early deaths globally according to the World Health Organisation (2013). People do require a small amount of Sodium in there diet, however not at the rates currently being consumed by the population today as confirmed by the NZ Nutrition Foundation (2013) and the recommended amount for men and women
Many studies have correlated dietary salt intake to hypertension and harmful cardiovascular effects. Individuals that develop hypertension from a high-salt intake have kidneys with limited ability to excrete that daily uptake and tend to retain the salt in skin and other extracellular compartments (Titze et al, 2003). Aldosterone plays an important role in regulating the body’s salt and water balance by controlling the activity of epithelial sodium channels in the renal collecting duct and may cause swelling and stiffening of the vessel while also altering its nitric oxide output, which affects the vessel’s ability to vasodilate (Nagata, 2006). Salt consumption leads to a transient increase in plasma volume and a subsequent rise in arterial blood pressure as extracellular volume shifts back to normal (Hamlyn et al, 1986). Recently, plasma sodium has been claimed to play a primary role in the control of blood pressure due to the discovered increase of it (23-69 mg) in individuals with hypertension (He et al, 2004). From this finding, an idea was triggered that vascular endothelium could participate in a sodium-mediated blood vessel function through the response of endothelial cells to aldosterone.
Veganism and vegetarianism are becoming a growing trend; both are advertised in grocery stores through organic produce, in commercials for juicers, as well as from Physicians promoting more whole grains, fruits and vegetables. More people are opting for healthier lifestyles. Most choose a vegan lifestyle to avoid hormone-injected, antibiotics-induced, and genetically-modified food. A U.S. study in 2008 showed that 0.5 percent and 3.2 percent of the population follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, respectfully, with 10 percent following a vegetarian-inclined diet (“Vegetarianism in America,” n.d.). Research indicates many positive factors to eating a plant based diet including a reduced risk of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (Barnard, Katcher, Jenkins, Cohen, &Turner-McGrievy, 2009). There are, however, a few possible negative side effects to these diets concerning inadequate vitamin and mineral intake, which could lead to deficiencies or possibly diseases.
When I hear the words ”bad foods”, I always think of cakes, muffins, ice-cream and so on. But there is something that is almost always there, but it is often hiding. We put it on our fries, on nearly every single protein, and we use it when we boil water. Have you guessed what it is? Salt. It is always there, but we might not always know that it is there (Farley). It is one of those things that we don’t always see, but will affect us in the long run. But why is it that our parents tell us to “not put so much salt on our foods?” Every year, scientists study salt and sodium to see what really is so bad about it and why it is such a big issue for our health. In the case of salt, I think that it is definitely scientists that decide that it is bad but media and newspapers are the ones that bring us the news. In a recent study made in Britain, it was proved that salt strongly increases heart attacks, strokes and especially high blood pressure. So to answer the question, it is bad because a high intake of salt can cause so many cardiovascular diseases and conditions. And there is a only one good way to stop it: by cutting down our intake of salt (Farley). I think that salt is definitely one of the major substances to blame for the rise of hypertension (high blood pressure), and we often don’t know how much we are actually consuming.
Many persons don’t realize that salt needs to be consumed in small amounts each day. The average person consumes an average of 3,436 mg of salt (2). The American Heart Association recommends people to take in less than 3,000 mg of sodium per day (3). The average person eats around 436 mg more than the recommended salt based on these numbers. Salt is important to be consumed within these numbers because it gets absorbed like a sponge absorbs water by the gastrointestinal tract also known as the GI tract and that helps cover and protect the body’s cells (2). If a person doesn’t do the right thing and actually take in a healthy amount of salt and they take
...um also helps to maintain membrane potential, blood volume, and blood pressure. Sodium helps with nutrient absorption and transport. Sodium deficiency hardly ever results from a poor diet. More common is too much sodium. If the human body has too much is heart disease and kidney problems.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture came up with Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans list rules a person should follow to maintain a healthy body. The first one on the list suggests that eating a variety of foods. This way your body can have the nutrients and protein that it needs. Number two on the list suggests maintaining a healthy weight. Don't let your body get out of control. You must watch the intake. Number three states that you should choose a diet that is low in cholesterol. Too much cholesterol is not just bad for the body, but it's also bad for the heart. Number four suggests choosing a diet with plenty of vegetables, fruits and grain products. Without those four items the body can't be healthy. Number five says use sugar in moderation. Sugar may give you quick energy, but the energy decreases rapidly. Too much sugar intake can cause diabetes. Number six says to also use salt and sodium in moderations. Too much salt causes high blood temperature. ...
Health claims cannot state the amount the food or grocery item can reduce the risk when describing the food-disease relationship. For an example, Nabisco Premium Original Saltine Crackers are marketed toward heart health because of its low cholesterol. While many factors affect heart disease, foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease. This health claim is valid because the crackers have 0 mg of cholesterol per serving which means they have less than 2 mg of cholesterol and 2 g (or less) of saturated fat. A second example is Campbell’s Low Sodium Chicken Soup with Noodles which is also marketed towards heart health, but because of its low sodium content. Foods low in sodium may reduce the risk of high blood pressure; and, in order to be considered a low sodium food, the label should only contain 140 mg or less of sodium per serving. The soup’s health claim is valid because its label reads 140 mg of sodium per serving.