Diet & Sodium question

Hi everyone!

While this doesn't exactly pertain to PM's or ICD's I know many of us are sodium restricted diets, etc because of our hearts.

My question is regarding sodium. I use a free site called the daily plate.com to track my calories and sodium. Each day I try to keep my sodium under 2,000mg and my calories to 1,800 or so. I recently had a 24 hr urine test done to check my sodium levels and it came back with a nasty letter from the doctor saying that I had consumed over 4000mg of sodium that day. I tracked everything I ate that day and only came up to 1400mg. Where would the discrepancy be? Is it possible to have a false test result because of another problem?

I don't understand what the problem could be. I am constantly reading labels and measuring food. We don't salt anything and I can barely stand to eat out these days because the food is so salty.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks-
Candi

3 Comments

weird

by jessie - 2008-11-04 02:11:20

i eat food with no salt in cooking. it is usually fresh food cooked from scratch. i know processed food has a lot of salt. other than that i can't help you. i would think it might have been a false positive reading jessie

Sodium Levels

by SMITTY - 2008-11-04 05:11:14


Hi Candi,

"Where would the discrepancy be?" That is a good question when it comes to the reported sodium values from a 24 hr. urine study.

I'm going to do a little thinking out loud here. If I am at any point insulting your intelligence with any of this, please forgive me.

As you probably know sodium can hide in the darnedest places. For example our drinking water, unless it is purified by distillation or reverse osmosis can contain low to high sodium levels. Or if you happen to have water in your house with a high water hardness level and have a zeolite water softener you have compounded the sodium problem since a zeolite softener removes calcium and magnesium (the components that cause water to be "hard") and replaces them with an equivalent amount of sodium. Or if you happen to drink a soft drink, for example a 12 oz. diet Coke contains 40 mg of sodium. That sodium is not from the addition of salt, but from the constituents that go into the Coke formula. In my opinion to have the control over your Na intake that you apparently need, you need to eat only sodium free foods. I mean if it doesn't say "salt or sodium free" you have to pass it up. That is about the only way you can have absolute control over your sodium intake.

As for the 24 hr. urine study, I think those things are prone to be very misleading unless you were given very strict instructions on what activities you may have and what foods and beverages to avoid. Frankly I think the only way to get reliable results from such study is to have it done in a controlled environment, such as a stay in a hospital where you intake can be controlled and your total output can be measured.

A good example of how your activity can adversely affect the results from specimens collected at home is if your activity involved physical activity that caused you to sweat. Sweating leave behind ions that are removed by the kidneys. (I'm sure we have all noticed how after a day of really hard work or playing where we sweated a lot, that our urine would go from a normal pale yellow to a dark Yellow or almost orange.) Another factor to consider is the amount of liquids you drink during the day. If you drink less than what you normally do, then the chemical level, (ions including Na) will be higher. On the other hand, if you were to drink, say 1.5 times as much water as you normally do and do not do a lot sweating, then you may very well be collecting diluted urine which would, of course have a lower Na level. Another item to be watched is the sample size you collect each time. You should collect exactly the same amount of urine each time as the Na level in urine will vary thorough out the day. Above all you not want to add a bigger specimen size from your first trip to the BR in the morning as the Na level will probably be at its highest point for the day.

So back to your question of "Where would the discrepancy be?" Answering that is like trying to answer some one that asks how long is a piece of string? The possibilities are endless.

I know I have come no where close to answering your question. But if it were me I would want to have a talk with my doctor and have him tell me something more specific than "you have to reduce your salt intake."

I wish you the best,


Smitty

Thank you!

by candi51 - 2008-11-08 01:11:56

Thank you guys that is great info!!

Yes I am on HCTZ daily but the Dr wants to remove it now that my EF is in normal ranges. If they do though I puff up like a blowfish!

Smitty- in no way did you insult my intelligence!!! I always TOTALLY appreciate your comments & knowledge!
I never thought of our water softener! We are on well water and have a water softener but it does go through a reverse osmosis before we drink it so I will have to see if that filters the sodium out.
I didn't drink much water that day as I was very busy preparing a dinner party. So that could have skewed the results.
I agree with you on getting a reading in an uncontrolled environment. There are no control factors.

The website I use to track foods is thedailyplate.com and users input the info off of food labels and track it. I like it because many restaurants most popular offerings are listed and I can see what is a good choice to order before we go out. Sadly Panera doesn't taste as good knowing how much sodium and calories there are :-(

I am not going to see that Dr again. The letter was SOOO rude especially in context with his behavior in the office. My GP said not to worry about it and he knows that I am a "good girl" about sticking to high fiber, low sodium diet. Dr's make me SO crazy sometimes! I just have to remember that they only "practice" medicene :-)

You know you're wired when...

Three months of free Internet comes with each device.

Member Quotes

A lot of people are and live normal lives with no problems whatsoever.