Sodium is an essential mineral that regulates nutrients and fluid in and out of your cells. Recommended sodium intake has been established at 2,300 mg per day. If you have high blood pressure or congestive heart failure, recommendations may be as low as 1,500 mg per day, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. High sodium intakes have been associated with increased calcium loss through your urine. Increasing your calcium intake while decreasing the amount of salt in your diet may prove beneficial to your bone health.
Calcium Regulation
Your bones are active live tissue and when calcium is needed elsewhere in your body, it is removed from your bones. When your diet is deficient in calcium, the removal of calcium from your bones can weaken them because more calcium in being taken out than what is put back in. Calcium losses become a greater problem with an aging population. Thin and weak bones are at an increased risk for fracture. Calcium losses become accelerated for females once menopause has set in, because during the reproductive years, estrogen has a protective effect on bone health.
DASH Diet
Preliminary results of the DASH diet, presented at the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research, reported that lowering your sodium intake and eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lead to greater bone mineral density. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet is high in calcium and lowers the acid load of the body, which may help to retain calcium in your bones and decrease calcium losses through your urine output. This dietary approach has been shown to reduce elevated blood pressure levels, but researchers also discovered higher bone densities in participants of the study. Researchers couldn't conclude if the addition of increased potassium, calcium with the reduction of sodium intake reduced bone turnover. All three groups that received various low sodium dietary protocols experienced a reduction in bone turnover.
Prevention
Calcium loss is dependent on how much sodium you take in. The higher your sodium intake, the larger your calcium losses are. Maintaining your sodium intake below the recommended 2,300 mg per day while meeting your daily requirement for calcium should cover calcium losses through your urine and maintain your bone health. Recommended daily intake of calcium is 1,000 mg per day, with an upper daily intake of 1,300 mg per day.
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a disease that results lowered bone mineral density that results in loss of strength and increased susceptibility to fractures with mild or moderate trauma or accidents, according to nutrition and disease expert, Maurice Shils, M.D. Sodium increases calcium loss through the urine in an incremental dose. For each 500 mg increase of sodium intake above 2,000 mg, according to Dr. Shils, you lose 10 mg of calcium. This may not sound significant, but your body only absorbs 25 percent of consumed calcium per day. Average sodium intakes in the United States range from 1 to 6 grams, not replacing lost calcium can negatively change hip bone density and increase your risk of developing osteoporotic bone fractures.
References
- "Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease"; Maurice Shils, M.D., James Olson, Moshe Shike, and A. Catherine Ross; 2005
- American Heart Association: 2010 Dietary Guidelines
- "Role of Dietary Sodium in Osteoporosis"; Robert Heaney, M.D.; 2006
- "The DASH Diet and Sodium Reduction Improve Markers of Bone Turnover and Calcium Metabolism in Adults"; Pao-Hwa Lin, Fiona Ginty, Lawrence Appel, Arline Bohannon, Patrick Garnero, Denis Barclay and Laura Svetkey; 2003
