4 health risks of too much sodium

Sodium is a necessary component for our body to function. It helps us maintain nerve capacity, muscle function, blood pressure and blood volume. However a diet too high in sodium can be very harmful to our bodies. Particularly to our cardiovascular system, kidney functioning, digestive track and skeletal system. Scary right! 

Here are 4 negative affects of too much sodium:

- too much sodium can make your cardiovascular system work overtime

Excess dietary sodium bloats our cells making our blood pump harder to get through our bodies. This raises our blood pressure and makes our hearts work harder than they're meant to. This results can be as serious as strokes for some people that ignore the signs their bodies are trying to give them!

-too much sodium can increases your risk of cancer

Excess sodium increases your risk of stomach cancer. This risk mainly comes from ingesting too much salt which can wreck havoc on your stomach lining.

- too much sodium can cause reduced bone mass

Excess sodium makes our bodies loose calcium through our urine. That's right were literally peeing out our calcium  which is needed for healthy bones and to prevent osteoporosis! This increases our risks of broken bones in a completely avoidable way!

- too much sodium can lead to kidney failure

Since our bodies pee out extra amounts of sodium this creates a domino affect and can greatly damage our kidneys. This can lead to kidney failure in worse case scenarios.

Like I mentioned above a certain level of dietary sodium is necessary for our bodies to function - in the average of 2,300 mg a day give or take. Today's diet of processed food can easily throw your daily sodium levels up to double what your recommended daily intake is. Which can put you at risks for the above issues if you're not careful. Two things we can do to stay ahead of these risks are track our daily calories in an app like My Fitness Pal so we can see exactly the amounts per our weight we need vs the amounts were getting. Also - super easy - we can limit our intake of processed food!