Latest / The Brain Dump / The Mineral Files Part 3: Everything Your Doctor Didn't Tell You About Sodium | Episode 34

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The Mineral Files Part 3: Everything Your Doctor Didn't Tell You About Sodium | Episode 34 · The Brain Dump

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get started, I am a licensed therapist and functional medicine educator, not a physician.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing in this episode constitutes medical advice, and listening to this podcast does not create a clinical relationship between us.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Please talk to your own health care provider before making any changes to your supplements or treatment plan.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Sandy Boone, therapist, coach, and nervous system educator with 30 years in healthcare and mental health.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I built two practices, got diagnosed with ADHD at 50, and learned the hard way that healers need healing too.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I help female therapists and healers regulate their nervous systems, reclaim their lives, and stop being everyone's everything.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Braind with Sandy Boone.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I suspect that everyone has told you that sodium was the enemy.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your doctor has told you to watch your salt intake.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Every nutrition label flags sodium like a warning sign.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: The entire public health conversation around sodium has been one long message.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Too much of it will kill you.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: It will make your blood pressure high.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody told you what happens when you don't have enough.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: My sodium came in at eight on my HTMA.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: The optimal range is around 25.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: That is not a modest deviation.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is dramatically low.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And spoiler alert, I drink at least 60 ounces of water a day with electrolytes.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I do all the things, and I try to do them right.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: But still, my sodium was at eight.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I had headaches that didn't have an obvious cause, muscle cramps that didn't connect to anything I could trace.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when I looked at my full mineral picture, the calcium shell, the adrenal pattern, the interconnectedness of the whole entire system, the low sodium made complete sense.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what this episode is about.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the sodium your cardiologist is worried about.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's the sodium your adrenal glands are quietly running out of because of chronic stress.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's also why drinking more water, even the right kind of water, doesn't always fix it.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: First, let's talk about what sodium actually does.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sodium is an electrolyte, meaning it carries an electrical charge and it's essential for moving things across cell membranes.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is the primary electrolyte in the fluid outside of your cells, and its balance with potassium, which lives primarily inside the cells, is what regulates fluid distribution throughout your entire body.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here is what sodium does that doesn't make it to the watch or salt conversation.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's responsible for nerve impulse transmission.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Every signal your nervous system sends uses sodium.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Every time a neuron fires, sodium is involved.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Without adequate sodium at the cellular level, nerve signaling slows and becomes less reliable.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's also responsible for muscle contraction.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sodium works alongside calcium and magnesium to support proper muscle function.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: The headaches and the muscle cramps I was experiencing are textbook low sodium symptoms.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: The muscles don't have what they need to contract and release properly.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's also responsible for cellular hydration.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's the part that surprises most people.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Water alone does not hydrate your cells.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sodium is what pulls water into the cell and holds it there.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Without adequate sodium, water passes through your system without actually getting where it needs to go.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can drink 60 ounces of water a day and still be functionally dehydrated at the cellular level if your sodium is depleted.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's also responsible for stomach acid production.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hydrochloric acid requires sodium chloride to form.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Low sodium contributes to low stomach acid, which then affects how well you absorb every other mineral you're trying to get from food.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, adrenal function.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where my story really lives and where we're going next.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: On an HTMA, sodium is one of the most important adrenal indicators on the panel.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: The adrenal glands regulate sodium through a hormone called aldosterone.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Aldosterone tells the kidneys to retain sodium rather than excrete it.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: When adrenal function is strong and well regulated, you hold on the sodium efficiently.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: When adrenal function is depleted from chronic stress, overwork, and the particular kind of grinding depletion that a lot of healers are living in, aldosterone output drops and the kidneys start losing sodium they should be keeping.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Low tissue sodium on an HTMA is not primarily a dietary problem, it's an adrenal problem.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can eat perfectly and still lose sodium faster than you can replace it if your adrenal glands are burned out.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: My sodium magnesium ratio was 0.38.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: The optimal is around four.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: That ratio tells the story clearly.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: The adrenal pattern was showing up not just in the individual sodium number, but in how sodium was relating to everything else on the panel.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: The experience of depleted adrenals is one that my audience knows well, even if you've never heard it called that.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: It is the exhaustion that does not resolve with rest, the flat energy that makes mornings feel impossible.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: The inability to handle stress the way that you used to, and the sense of running on fumes has become so normal you've stopped noticing it.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a character flaw, it's a physiological state, and the sodium depletion is one of the measurable markers of it.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: The mental health connection here is direct.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: The adrenal system and the nervous system are in constant conversation.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: When adrenal function is compromised, the nervous system's capacity to regulate itself is also compromised.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot fully address chronic anxiety, burnout, emotional depletion, and that flat wired state through therapy alone when the adrenal system supporting your nervous system is running on empty.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly why I keep coming back to this functional medicine lens.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Root cause is not always psychological.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's sitting right there in a sodium number.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: The counterintuitive piece I want to spend some time on, because it runs directly against what most health conscious people have been told, is drinking more water is not always the answer.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Water without adequate electrolytes, specifically sodium and potassium, does not fully hydrate your cells.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: It dilutes the electrolytes you already have.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you are chronically drinking high volumes of plain water without sufficient sodium, you may be making your sodium situation worse over time.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I drink at least 60 ounces a day with electrolytes, and my sodium is still at eight.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now consider what is happening in someone who drinks the same volume with nothing at all added.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Water follows sodium.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sodium holds water inside the cells.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And without enough sodium to act as the anchor, water moves through the cells, and we remain functionally underhydrated regardless of how much fluid we're taking in.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: The image I find the most useful is water without electrolytes, is like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: The water goes in, but it also comes right back out.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: In my case, the calcium shell added another layer.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Even with the electrolytes, when calcium is blocking proper mineral utilization of the cell membrane, sodium cannot fully get in where it needs to be.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: The delivery system itself is compromised, and that's why addressing the calcium shell through body by OPC is part of the same picture.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Mineral transport requires functional cell membranes, and functional cell membranes require the right phospholipid environment.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Also, not all sodium is the same, and this is a conversation that almost never happens when we talk about salt.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Table salt, the white stuff in the shaker on most restaurant tables, is sodium chloride that's been heavily processed and refined.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: The processing strips out virtually all the trace minerals, and most table salt also contains anti-caking agents, including sodium aluminum sicillate added to prevent clumping.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: The FDA considers these additives generally safe.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some research has raised questions about the neurotoxic potential of prolonged aluminum ingestion, including a possible connection to a Alzheimer's disease.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Though this remains an area of ongoing study rather than settled science, table salt may also contain microplastics from the environmental contamination.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: The alternative salts are meaningfully different.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: You have Himalayan pink salt, which comes from ancient salt deposits in Pakistan.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: The pink color comes from iron and other trace minerals.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: It contains over 80 trace minerals, no additives, and no microplastics, given its ancient geological origin.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's also Celtic sea salt.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's harvested from a coat from coastal salt ponds in Brittany, France, using traditional methods that preserve the mineral content.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It contains over 80 trace minerals as well, and is notably high in magnesium, which matters given the calcium-magnesium relationship we covered in the last two episodes.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Celtic salt is also lower in overall sodium content than table salt, which sounds counterintuitive, but it means you get more mineral complexity per gram of salt.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Neither of these is a magic bullet.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: The trace mineral content, while real, is not present in quantities that substitute for targeted supplementation when you have genuine deficiencies.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: What they do offer is sodium in a less processed, more mineral-rich form that your body can work with more efficiently than isolated sodium chloride plus aluminum compounds.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: From a functional perspective, switching from salt, just plain table salt, to Himalayan or Celtic sea salt is one of the lower effort, higher integrating changes you can make to your diet.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not expensive, it doesn't require overhauling anything, and it replaces a processed product with one that at least brings some cofactors along for the ride.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Since most people are reaching for electrolyte products rather than adjusting their salt, let's talk about what actually makes a good one because the market is full of products that are essentially flavored sugar water with a pinch of sodium and a very good marketing budget.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: From a functional medicine perspective, here's what you're looking for.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: You want a meaningful sodium content.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: A well-formulated electrolyte delivers somewhere between 400 and 600 milligrams of sodium per serving.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Below that range, you're not getting enough to actually move the needle on cellular hydration.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: You want potassium in balance with sodium, a ratio of roughly one to one between sodium and potassium, so around 400 to 600 milligrams of each, is what research supports for hydration and neuromuscular function.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Potassium is sodium's intracellular partner.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: An electrolyte product that skips potassium or delivers very little of it is missing half of the equation.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: You also want absorbable magnesium.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Magnesium malate and magnesium glycinate are the forms you want.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Magnesium oxide, which shows up in cheaper products, is poorly absorbed and is essentially only useful as a laxative.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: We covered this one in the magnesium episode.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you want zero or minimal sugar.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Some products use small amounts of sugar to support sodium absorption, and glucose does facilitate sodium transport across the gut wall, which has a physiological basis.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: A small amount is not inherently problematic, but a product that reads like a sports drink with more sugar than electrolytes is not what we're talking about.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Ideally, you want third-party testing.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: The supplement industry is not tightly regulated.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Third-party testing through organizations like NSF or Informed Sport means an independent lab has verified that what is on the label is actually in the product and it's free from contaminants.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you want clean ingredients overall, no artificial colors or no unnecessary fillers or preservatives that undermine what you're trying to accomplish.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: The combination of Himalayan or Celtic salt in your food alongside a well-formulated electrolyte product with adequate sodium, potassium, and absorbable magnesium is a much more functional approach than either one in isolation.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: My symptoms were headaches and muscle cramps.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: The picture of sodium depletion is broader than that.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to know the people listening who may recognize themselves here.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're looking for in symptoms of sodium depletion is fatigue that does not respond to rest.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most common presentations of adrenal-driven sodium depletion.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're not tired because you stayed up too late.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Fundamentally, constitutionally exhausted in a way that sleep does not touch.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you have low blood pressure and dizziness when standing, this is called orthostatic hypotension, and it's a direct result of low sodium and depleted adrenal function.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sodium is required to maintain our blood volume.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: When it is depleted, blood pressure drops, and the body struggles to adjust when you change position.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: You have salt cravings.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: This one is the body being honest.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you crave salt, your adrenal system is often trying to tell you something.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: The cultural instinct is to override it, and the functional medicine instinct is to pay attention to it.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's also brain fog and difficulty concentrating.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sodium is required for that nerve signaling.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: When it's depleted, cognitive function suffers in ways that look a lot like anxiety, depression, and attention difficulties.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: There can be nausea, particularly in the morning.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Low sodium affects fluid balance in the gut and can produce nausea that doesn't have another obvious cause.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, anxiety and mood instability.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: The adrenal nervous system connection means that anything compromising adrenal output also compromises the nervous system's capacity to regulate.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Anxiety that does not have a clear psychological trigger that lives in the body rather than the mind is worth looking at through this lens.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: I had a sodium at eight.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: I had at least 60 ounces of pure water a day with electrolytes.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: I had headaches, muscle cramps, and an adrenal pattern all over the HTMA.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: The story my body was telling was not you eat too much salt.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was your adrenal glands are burned out and they cannot hold on to what you need.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And underneath all that, a calcium shell blocking mineral transport at the cell membrane level, making it harder for even the right inputs to land where they belonged.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: That is a completely different story than the one public health messaging has been telling us for decades.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's the story that functional medicine is designed to read, not from blood levels that the body regulates so tightly they miss the early depletion, but from tissue levels that show what's actually happening at the cellular level.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Friends, sodium is not the enemy.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: In the right amounts and quality forms alongside the cofactors that make it work, sodium is the thing that's holding your cells together, keeping your nerves firing and your adrenals functioning.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Next up in the mineral files, potassium, the intracellular partner to sodium, the mineral your thyroid depends on, and another one that showed up significantly low in my own results.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: If something today resonated, check the show notes.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find information about booking your root calls roadmap with me at sandyboon.com where we'll look at your full mineral picture and figure out what your body is running on.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Come find me on Instagram at the Sandy Boone.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a healing professional looking for a community that feels good to be in, come join us on the Rooted Calm Collective on Facebook.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Links for everything are in the show notes.