WEEKLY HEALTH TIP: Common table salt is a poison, refined
from Nature's storehouse to remove all elements but sodium chloride.
But the body needs salt. How to resolve?

Use Himalayan Salt

"Your table salt is actually 97.5% sodium chloride and 2.5% chemicals such as moisture absorbents and iodine. Dried at over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, the excessive heat alters the natural chemical structure of the salt causing the potential for a myriad of health problems in your body." - Dr Joseph Mercola

Some say we ended up with this particular compound due to industry's colossal use of it. Whatever the reason, table salt is not real 'salt' as it should be and its dangers are well touted:

· It destabilises blood pressure
· Can cause cellulite, kidney stones and rheumatism
· Upsets your fluid balance
· Acts as a diuretic (expels water from cells)
· Thereby a cell-toxin
· Contains the endocrine disrupters, fluoride and iodine
· Contains fillers such as calcium carbonate and aluminium hydroxide, the latter aluminium implicated in Alzheimer's Disease

Some PR job to convince the world we need it, eh?

Yet 'salt' is essential for the body's systems. Farmers know if they don't put out the salt blocks for their cattle, they die. This is real salt as Nature intended, not the truncated, worse-than-useless mess made of it in the refining process.

Enter saltpan salt, sea salt, Celtic salt, and the pink Dalek of all salts, Himalayan crystallized salt, or 'white gold' as it's come to be known (light pink gold, actually). Mercola declares this mother-of-all-salts:

· Regulates the water content throughout your body
· Balances excess acidity from your cells, particularly your brain cells
· Balances your blood sugar levels and helps reduce your aging rate
· Assists in the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in your body and absorption of food particles through your intestinal tract
· Helps clear mucus plugs and phlegm from your lungs - particularly useful in asthma and cystic fibrosis
· Acts as a strong natural antihistamine to help clear up congestion in your sinuses
· Prevents muscle cramps
· Makes the structure of your bones firm - osteoporosis can occur when your body needs more salt and takes it from your bones
· Regulates your sleep - it is a natural hypnotic
· Maintains your libido
· Prevents varicose veins and spider veins on your legs and thighs
· Stabilizes irregular heartbeats - in conjunction with water, [salt] is actually essential for the regulation of your blood pressure

These claims are backed by evidence. Barbara Hendel MD and Peter Ferreira cover most of it in Water and Salt, The Essence of Life (available through Amazon). World renowned water guru, Dr Fereydoon Batmanghelidj's Water and Salt, Your Healers From Within, available through Credence, contains much of the Iranian physician's decades of studies into the building blocks of life. The manufacturers of FIJI water, as another example, remark on their web-site:

'A nine-week, double-blind university study undertaken in 2003 at the Inter-University of Graz, Austria, examined the effects of drinking a minimum of 1.5 liters of tap water per day with common table salt vs. a minimum of 1.5 liters of FIJI Water with Original Himalayan Crystal Salt on physical and psychological functions of the body. In the study, patients who drank FIJI Water together with the Original Himalayan Crystal Salt saw significant positive changes in respiratory, circulatory, organ, connective tissue and nervous system functions. Patients also reported increases in the quality of sleep, energy and concentration levels, brain activity, weight loss, enhanced consciousness and noticeable nail and hair growth.'

The medical orthodoxy is not kind to any notion of a super-salt, crying 'commercialism' and 'quackery', indubitably the pot calling the kettle black. My advice? Switch to Himalayan salt or at least a whole salt. Table salt is just that - sodium chloride. Himalayan salt is sodium chloride plus 82 other minerals in its natural, crystalline form, all ready to feed metabolic processes the way Nature intended. There are other advantages.

Get Sole And Slap it All Over
Topical applications and baths in whole salt solutions have been found to help with psoriasis, eczema, toe-nail fungus, insect bites, rheumatism and arthritis, acne, ear infections, nasal congestion and sore throats. This solution used is known as sole, (pronounced so-lay). Take a container of water and start mixing Himalayan salt crystals into it, stirring well, until the salt no longer dissolves. The solution is now 26% saturated and sterile, so can be re-used. Sole in a hot water bowl can be inhaled as a decongestant for blocked sinuses since it is antiseptic and ideal for bacterial/fungal/yeast conditions.