About Salt.

[Uglyhead]

I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but... Doesen't a bit of salt help the body retain water? (Handy for long desert trips, I'd bet!) And, isn't salt often used as a food additive, and preservative?

You'd think that salt would be a bit more precious, then, wouldn't you?

Or is the salt from the salt flats evil and poisonous or something?

Or is there a great abundance of it, seeing as the ground is practically made of it in some parts of zalanthas, so the quantity cuts down on value?

[Anonymous]

Someone will give you a much more detailed and scientific response, I'm sure, but sodium has a negative effect on the body's water stores as the body releases more water from cells in order to counteract the rise in sodium in the bloodstream.

Go to ask.com and type 'does sodium make you thirsty' for  a better answer.

[Bestatte]

Not exactly "band camp" but my memory of the whole salt thing does stem from summer camp, so laugh away, y'all.

During extremely high temperatures in a humid climate, the body loses much more fluid than in most other situations. Taking salt tablets during these periods can help you retain some of the water, but it must also be augmented with water intake to be effective.

So - you'll lose less, but be more thirsty. You'll still wind up dehydrated if you don't drink water, but a salt tablet can mean the difference between heat stroke and enough health to stagger to a watering hole in close proximity to where you are.

In desert climes, the humidity is very low and the heat very high, which means water evaporates before it can be noticeable as sweat on your skin. This is a much higher rate of water loss, which as far as I know cannot be compensated for with salt. Only water intake can compensate for such a rapid loss of body fluid.

Again, this is only a foggy memory of the explanation I was given back in summer camp, approximately 30 years ago.

[Quirk]

http://www.nfpt.com/Library/Articles/dehyd.html

Salt is useful in treatment of dehydration; hence you'd expect it to be fairly prized in a world where dehydration is one of the most likely causes of death.

Quirk

[Anonymous]

Wow, great link Quirk.  I had no idea.  Guess I was wrong.

well you werent really wrong, you more addressed the subject as 'salt making you more thirsty' that is correct, but you retain the water you drink at least so you wont be dehydrated. I guess in a world where water is precious and salt plentiful I might want to just go with drinking water and avoiding the salt

[Barzalene]

When you sweat you lose both sweat and potassium. I have no idea if salt keeps you hydrated, however, dehydration will cause a sodium deficiency.

[chang]

Now if we get into sodium and potassium, then we need an entire nutrition system.  Scrab heads and water won't get ya anywhere without veggies, your joints'll get stiff.

And what keeps us from gettin scurvy!

What I learned about in Bio or Chemistry or something was the the salt tablets -do- help keep water in your body, but it does draw the water from the cells. So if you take salt tablets, the percentage of water in your cells decreases, but that salty water outside of your cells will do the sweatin' when the sweatin gets done. So... theoretically (This is just me speculating now) If you took salt tablets, waited a while for osmosis to balance the waterness out, then drank a lot of water, you'd end up with a lot of water in your cells, and outside your cells, so that way, you would perspire the salty-outside-of-cell-water, and keep the water that's inside your cells, inside your cells.

[Ghardoan]

Given all this information, maybe salt tablets would be something feasable in the game? Perhaps they may make the user thirstier immediately after consumption, but slow the rate at which one gets thirsty over an extended period of time? Just a thought.

Ghardoan

[gfair]

The way the salt system would exist in Zalanthas would be by salting food. For example, the Byn stew bears the description of being salted in some fashion.  In real life we likewise get our salt through salted foods.  Contrasting that, Cows, being vegitarians, do not get salt through their food and so farmers typically set out "salt licks", big blocks of salt that cows come by and lick, being able to detect when they are low on salt.

I'd guess, since the beings of Zalanthas would live in the feast & famine world, that they would know when they are low on salt and salt themselves up.  This idea of salt pellets may be workable, or simply a smaller version of the salt lick.

I once came into a rock crystal of salt and decided to lick it - a curious experience.  Much less of the sensation of the salt than I thought.

Salt lick - the popsicle of Zalanthas.

[creeper386]

Acctually, it may be based completely on fiction but I seem to remember from many different sources that carrying around salt was a common thing. And normal they'd take salt as they take in water. Beleive it allows a person to hold more water, the salt drags water out of the cells while the new water goes back into the cells.

Also I remember something about people dying do to lack of sodium just as often as actually dehydration or something. I don't know exactly what salt does in the human system but it's probaby some function thats at least slightly important.

Creeper who is just spouting from memory.

[Gar]

Salt is a very tricky thing.  As that website says, if you or someone else is suffering from severe, or an unknown level of dehydration, DO NOT take salt.  If taken, and the level of dehydration is high enough, you could be in major trouble.  As a general rule, you get enough salt from your diet and probably won't need supplements.  

Sometimes, people who are sweating constantly and in large amounts, may need some additional potassium intake (marathon runners come to mind).  But here's the catch, those people are not getting dehydrated (if they were, salt is the last thing they'd want).  They're taking in fluids, but as their body sweats out water and potassium, if they drink water, now they've returned their hydration to normal but their potassium level is low.  Some great scientists at the Univ of Florida discovered a way to incorporate this into a sports drink and Gatorade was born (Ie, it replentishes your potassium level while hydrating you).  

I think trying to incorporate the effect of potassium deficency is unnecessary.  Sure, it might be realistic, but so would sunburns, other types of vitamins, scurvy as someone mentioned and on and on.