Upped my sodium, heart rate increase?


(Adam) #1

Hi all,

I’ve been scouring the forums and have just finished listening to The Salt Fix episode. I realized my sodium levels were causing abit of fatigue and brain fog.

I upped my levels by supplementing about 1/4 teaspoon of Celtic salt in some water and having a pinch of salt on the toungue about 3 times in he day. I also have a magnesium supplement (300mg) in the evenings.

Day 1 I felt immediately better. Day 2 I woke up in the am with my heart at about 90-100bpm which has me worried.

My thoughts are that in upping my sodium I’ve overclubbed over my potassium levels. I’ve broken a balance, albeit a low balance.

Strategy for a fix: keto aide this morning -650 mg potassium, 500 mg sodium, 75 mg magnesium. I have a tsp of Celtic salt measured out and I’ll be sprinkling on my food, water, and toungue across the day - total sodium is about 2000mg in that. I don’t want to directly supplement higher because I feel I can naturally get about 2-4000 mg naturally in food. My goal is between 4-6000mg. I also have an avacado loaded and ready for my lunch for a potassium hit.

Does this sound like a good plan? Anything crazy here?

I’ll report back on progress :wink:

-Adam


(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #2

Query: why not just maintain the balance by ketoaid instead of Celtic salt and pinches? That’ll up the whole balance without “overclubbing” the potassium.


(Rob) #3

If you’re eating Real Food and not processed food, it’s unlikely that you’ll get 2000mg from your food. I’d be inclined to check the nutrition information using MyFitnessPal for the sodium content and adjust supplementation accordingly until you reach around 5000mg per day.


(Adam) #4

Good point, but I guess the only issue is around the amount of keto aid I need on hand. To hit the 4000 mg sodium mark that’s 8litres of keto aide if I do a 600 potassium/500sodium/75mag split. That would also put me up to 600mg magnesium which is abit high, and 4800mg potassium - much higher than I want to directly supplement due to the inherent risks with overclubbed potassium.


(Adam) #5

Also good points. I think this led to my low sodium issues I’ve been working out over the past few weeks. I just haven’t worked out a strong pattern of sodium supplementation.


(Rob) #6

Have you listened to

?


(Adam) #7

Yep, just listened to it twice yesterday. Totally into upping my sodium I was just surprised around the heart rate increase. I believe the spoke about sodium and potassium balances, low sodium dumps potassium. I’m wondering if by upping my sodium significantly to the target 5000mg (assuming I was really really low prior) that it’s triggering more of a response around my low potassium.

My current hypothesis.


(Adam) #8

Updated progress:

  • had keto aide in the am and at night
  • measured 1tsp of Celtic salt (2000mg sodium ish) and added it to my water and food across the day.
  • had salty foods, plus an avacado
  • supplemented around 300mg magnesium

At first, things felt great. Only major item is my heart rate was still sitting at 90bpm. Not uncomfortable at all just noticable.

My aha moment - water.

Prior to all of this I was downing alot of water. 3-5 litres per day minimum. Going Keto, I found I had to actually reduce this to feel ok ish. I think this is due to flushing electrolytes more aggressively without refill.

Upping my electrolytes helped abit, but my big error - I didn’t subsequently increase my water back up.

So as part of this process I just reupped my h2o and initial results are promising. Heart feels better. Energy up.

I’ll report back after a few more days of this.