Health Claims

Women endurance athletes, especially those swimming in open water, seem to get exercise-related low sodium more often than men — 36% of women versus 8% of men in some studies — and this might be due to differences in hormones, habits, or body type.

When endurance athletes exercise for a long time, their bodies sometimes release a hormone that tells the kidneys to hold onto water — even when they don’t need to. This can dilute the salt in the blood and lead to a dangerous condition called hyponatremia, kind of like a known medical syndrome caused by too much of that hormone.

Drinking too much fluid during long workouts can actually be dangerous — it can lead to a serious condition called low blood salt (hyponatremia), especially if you're gaining weight during a race because you're taking in more fluid than you're losing.

Some athletes who do long, tough workouts like marathons or triathlons can end up with low sodium in their blood — a condition called exercise-associated hyponatremia — and it’s actually pretty common depending on the event.

People who learned to use more spices and herbs instead of salt kept eating less sodium for 20 weeks after a short low-salt diet, and their bodies showed much less salt in their urine compared to people who didn’t get the training.

If you're an urban adult at high risk for heart problems, using spices and herbs in a guided program might help you cut way back on salt—almost 1,000 mg less per day—compared to trying to do it on your own.

If people at high risk for high blood pressure — like Black adults or those who already have it — get help using more spices and herbs instead of salt, they might cut down on sodium by nearly 1,000 mg a day over 20 weeks, more than if they try to do it on their own.

Telling athletes to drink as much as they can during long workouts might actually be causing more cases of dangerous low sodium, not preventing them.

You won’t get low sodium symptoms from sweating during long workouts unless you drink way too much water — so replacing sodium isn’t the most important thing to prevent this issue.

If endurance runners drink too much during long races, it can dilute their blood and cause dangerous low sodium levels — not just from losing salt, but from drinking too much. Cutting back on fluids in events over 4 hours could prevent this problem.

After South Africa introduced rules to reduce salt in food, more older adults in rural areas started eating less salt — the number doubled from 7% to 17%.

In older adults in rural South Africa, the less salt they eat, the lower their blood pressure tends to be — every gram of salt saved drops blood pressure by a small but measurable amount.

After South Africa started limiting salt in processed foods, people in a rural area were found to be eating less salt — and that drop stayed steady for years.

In rural parts of Indonesia, rice farmers get most of their salt from cooking at home with salt and seasonings, not from packaged or processed foods — which is different from how people in cities eat.

Rice farmers in Gadingrejo might be eating too much salt because they don’t know much about healthy eating, follow traditional cooking habits, and don’t have good access to health info.

About 1 in 3 rice farmers in a part of Indonesia eats more salt than the World Health Organization says is safe, while most others eat less — so high salt intake is common but not everyone has it.

Most Chinese adults are eating way more salt than doctors recommend — on average, almost double the safe amount.

If you're a Chinese adult who likes less salty food, you're more likely to exercise regularly, know more about the health risks of salt, and prefer low-salt diets — it might mean you're just more into healthy habits overall.

If you're a Chinese adult who likes salty food, you're more likely to eat greasy meals and drink alcohol regularly than someone who prefers milder flavors — meaning these habits might group together and raise heart health risks.

Chinese adults who say they like salty food tend to have higher levels of sodium compared to potassium in their body waste than those who prefer milder flavors — which could mean they're eating too much salt and not enough potassium-rich foods.

Chinese adults who say they like salty food tend to have more salt in their urine over 24 hours than those who prefer less salty food — suggesting that if you like salt, you're probably eating more of it.

Even if endurance runners take in a lot of salt, they can still develop low blood sodium if they drink too much water — it’s the overdrinking, not the salt intake, that’s the main problem.

If a runner gets low on salt during a long race, drinking a strong saltwater mix might help boost their sodium levels quickly before they get to a hospital.

Even if endurance runners take a lot of salt pills during long races, drinking too much water — like 10 liters — can still give them a dangerous condition called low blood sodium. Salt alone won’t protect you if you’re chugging way too much water.