What exactly is sodium?

Question

I see it on food labels quite often, and I'm not sure exactly what it is.

if someone could lightly tell me what sodium does to the body and how healthy it is, that would be great.

thanks. :)

Answer 1

Sodium is an element, a metal in its pure form, but soft, almost like butter, and is quite volitile (explodes with exposure to water).

In physiology, it is usually in the cation form, and bonded chemically to chlorine as salt, sodium chloride or with bicarbonate as sodium bicarbonate, both essential electrolytes for proper functioning of the body.

In a small percentage of people with high blood pressure, the best therapy is salt restriction, and in those people that is actually more effective than many of the drugs. Also for people in either heart failure or liver failure, excess salt may cause them to accumulate fluids in various body cavities.

For the young, healthy person, there needs to be no restriction, your kidneys filter out what you don't need anyway.

As I was taught in med school: "The dumbest kidney is smarter than the smartest doctor".

Answer 2

NaCl

Its basically salt. It can be bad in high doses for your body. it raises blood pressure but is also a good food preservative

Answer 3

SALT duh