The sodium/potassium balance is one way the body controls the pH in the body. When the body is too basic they kidneys excrete sodium, and when it is too acidic the kidneys excrete potassium. You can avoid getting kidney stones, by having a more acidic environment in your kidneys. When the urine is too basic, calcium and phosphorus bind together to form kidney stones. By eating a lot of potassium, you will make your urine more acidic.
Sodium and potassium help to keep blood pressure constant. If you don't eat very much potassium, you won't have much in your cells. You're more than likely to have a lot of sodium on the outside of your cells, though. Your cellular pumps have to work extra hard to keep the sodium outside your cell membrane. More sodium will get inside your cells, and with it comes water. Your cells can actually burst because of the amount of water drawn into it. The water comes from surrounding fluids and blood. This causes a decrease in blood pressure. Eating enough potassium will help keep your blood pressure at its most healthful level. When a lot of salt gets into your blood, you get high blood pressure. This means that the blood in your body is pushing on the vein wall. It is like trying to run more water through a hose than can comfortably go through it. Your heart eventually stops pumping as hard. The kidneys recognize the drop in amount of blood coming through them and thinks there is a drop in blood pressure. This stimulates rennin and aldosterone to be released. Rennin constricts the blood vessels, which is the last thing you need. Aldosterone directs the kidneys to retain more sodium. When the sodium is drawn back into the body, it brings with it more urea and water. Urea is a toxic poison!
Your kidneys work very hard to keep the delicate sodium/potassium balance. They filter 325 quarts of blood a day. They were designed to deal with little disturbances in the sodium/potassium balance. When we overload our bodies with sodium, it is an enormous disturbance. It is hard for the kidneys to get the balance to the correct level. Your kidneys will not function as well, and possibly eventually stop working.
Salt isn't all bad though. If you didn't have any sodium, you would die. Sodium is contained in every bodily fluid. That's why blood, sweat, tears, and urine (don't ask) are all salty. Sodium and chloride help to transport nutrients between cells. Sodium keeps calcium evenly dispersed throughout the blood, so it doesn't collect on artery walls. Salt is needed to produce hydrochloric acid, without which we could not digest our food.
Although a deficiency in salt is hard to do, it can happen. You will experience wrinkles, sunken eyes (because of tissue dehydration), flatulence, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, confusion, low blood pressure, irritability, and a difficulty in breathing. You probably don't have to worry about it; most of us get way more salt than we need without trying. You need 300-500 mg of sodium a day, and the average American eats 10,000-12,000 mg a day.
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