Salt Overdose?

[seychelles311]

So I watched this show about a woman who fed her child too much salty food (Zataran's Rice Mix) and he died from a salt overdose.  Today I ate a bunch of salty foods and the meat I ate for dinner had a really salty spice rub on it, and now my tongue feels like it's burning, and I have horrible anxiety about having too much salt.  Normally I eat a fairly regular amount of sodium, but I'm afraid I had too much sodium and I'm really scared to overdose on salt!  Does anyone know how much salt it would take to overdose?  Please let me know if you know!  I feel ok other than than my burning tongue, not sick in my stomach or anything.  Just super anxious! 

[LVMomra]

You do not have any of the symptoms of a salt overdose. I looked it up, nothing you are experiencing is a symptom of overdose, only of having eaten a lot of salt in a short time. Relax, breathe, your fine.

[seychelles311]

Ok.  Thank you!  I know it's a bad idea to Google when you're scared or having anxiety, which is why I didn't, so I appreciate you looking that up for me.  I was afraid if I Googled it I would scare myself more. 

[LindaRK]

I would suspect a salt overdose as you read about occurred over a period of years, not in just one sitting (unless you ate an entire container of salt - that's another story!).

[seychelles311]

No, definitely not a container of salt.  Just a bunch of really salty foods for lunch and dinner. 

[sassparella]

Just looked at the symptoms of salt overdose... you'd know you had it if you did. You are fine.

[seychelles311]

Thanks for looking!  Does anyone know how much salt it would actually take to overdose?  Like, how many mg's at a time?

[Evap]

A lot more than you're going to want to eat. Lol. You're supposed to try to stay under 2400mg's a day, which is 6 grams, but it looks like you'd need about 2 pounds in a day before you start worrying. I'm pretty sure you're alright. The salt overdoses you normally hear about are from people eating 12 or so grams EVERY DAY.

[Hohum]

As soon as I saw your first 5 words "So, I watched this show..." the anxiety alarm bells started ringing! 

It's very, very common for us to read or watch something and focus on it, only to "fall victim" to the same thing a day or two later or magically "discover symptoms". Happens all the time.

[sixpack]

one of my fave things to OD on is:  those large Queen Anne olives----with a garlic slice in side.    OMG yum, yummy, yum, yum.   I think I had 4 with dinner last night.  What happens when I have too much salt on any particular day is that my rings are tighter the next day.

if one could easily die with just your average "too much" salt intake that most americans engage in daily, you'd hear lots of stories and actually know people....

yeah that news item you are referring to has a lot more to it than meets the eye.

[seychelles311]

Evap, thanks for the info!  It always helps me to look at the facts and numbers, and then try to logically apply it to my situation.  I didn't have nearly 12 grams, so that's definitely a relief!  I did probably eat close to the daily recommended amount, or maybe even a little over, but not nearly enough to make me sick.  Thanks again!

Hohum, you're definitely right!  This isn't the first time I've seen something on TV (or read an article about something) that was health related, and sure enough within the next day or 2 I'm magically exhibiting symptoms.  I need to start realizing that I'm doing that before I go into panic mode!  At first I was convinced I had eaten too much salt, just because of what I saw on TV, but now, 24 hours later, I'm totally fine and have no symptoms and I can look back and realize how silly I was being. 

Sixpack, those olives are delicious!!!  That's so funny, cuz I feel bloated (jewelry or pants feel tighter) after I eat a lot of nachos (chips and cheese).  I never really thought about it, but I'll bet the high salt content is what's doing it!  I could never really figure out why.  I'm sure you're right about the news item too.  The show was pretty dramatic and seemed pretty one-sided, demonizing high salt foods like Zatarain's rice. 

Thank you all so much for your encouragement, input and support.  I felt like this whole incident was something that could've been really bad for my anxiety, but it turned into a success with a little insight and logical thinking.  I think my therapist will be proud of me for not taking this too far.  Lol!