How we wish to be cited:
Thulesius O. The salt of the earth and the salt of the sea [health]. Rondel 2006; 26. URL: http://www.rondellen.net

The salt of the earth and the salt of the sea

About the author Olav Thulesius, MD, PhD, worked as clinical physiologist and culture worker in Norway, Sweden, Kuwait and, at present, Indiana University. Apart from over 200 articles in scientific journals, he has published monographs on Culpeper (1), Edison (2), Stowe (3), and John Ericsson (4). Like Stevan Dedijer (5), Thulesius is in a position to see Sweden and Swedes in past and present context.

History and concepts

In the old days, salt in Scandinavia and England was precious commodity. Special salt rations given Roman soldiers were known as salarium argentum (silver salt), the forerunner of the English word salary and later salt was also used to pay civilians for a certain period of service.

Salt was expensive to buy from the Hansa trading company in Lübeck which obtained its supply from not far away, Lüneburg, a town famous for its salt during the Middle Ages; it emerged as a powerful and wealthy Hanseatic city. Here salt also inspired introduction of natural cures, with the Lüneburg Spa Center, offering cures and relaxation, psoriasis treatments and massages.

A thousand years of history are enshrined in the Lübeck’s historical buildings such as the largest medieval Town Hall in Germany and the tall Alter Kran (Old Crane) built in 1797.

A strange trade in ancient Greece was the exchange of salt for slaves which gave rise to the expression, not worth his salt. The Romans established saltworks in Germany, Poland and England.  References to salt abound in languages around the globe, particularly regarding salt used for food. From the Latin sal, for example, comes such other derived words as sauce and sausage.

Olaus Magnus, the Swedish Catholic priest, when exiled in Rome in 1555 described sea salt making in Norway in his illustrated “Description of the  Northern Peoples“. Here salty water was pumped through hollow tree trunks from the depth of a fjord and cooked in pans to evaporate the water. In Sweden a similar procedure was applied on the westcoast in Bohuslän and here trees used to fire the cauldrons became scarce.

Salt is one of the most effective and most widely used of all food preservatives (and also used to preserve Egyptian mummies). Pre-civilization salt men represent the oldest as well as significant contemporary archeological research sources. Its industrial and other uses are almost without number.

The Dead Sea

The sea in the Jordan Rift Valley, between Jordan, the West Bank and Israel is called dead because its high salinity, which means no fish nor aquatic organisms can live in it. Here also is the Earth’s lowest point at 418 metres below sea level and the deepest lake with the salt content of 30%.

The Jordan River is the only major stream flowing into the Dead Sea and there are no outlet streams. Beginning in the 1960s, water inflow to the Dead Sea from the Jordan River was reduced as a result of large-scale irrigation and generally low rainfall.

The Dead Sea has attracted interest and visitors  for thousands of years, and it has been the supplier of salt and balms for Egyptian mummification.

Prominent personages linked with the Dead Sea and its surroundings are Herod the Great, Jesus of Nazareth, and John the Baptist. The human history of the Dead Sea goes all the way back to remote antiquity.

Just north of the Dead Sea is Jericho, the oldest continually occupied town in the world. On the Dead Sea’s southeast shore where the cities mentioned in the Bible, which were destroyed in the time of Abraham, Sodom and Gomorra.

The Dead Sea is a popular turist attraction: here you can easily float like a cork because of natural buoyancy of the water. It was one of the world’s first health resorts and even today there are health spas and hot springs along the shore with tourist centers.

Spa treatment at the Dead Sea is popular for several reasons: the mineral content of the water with its very low content of bacteria, pollens and other allergens. The higher atmospheric pressure at this great depth seems to help breathing more oxygen and some persons suffering from respiratory diseases such as cystic fibrosis enjoy this. Sufferers of psoriasis benefit from the salt water and sunbathing.

In some aspects, the Dead Sea is similar to the Great Salt Lake in Utah, in the United States, the center of Mormon culture.

Salt and Heath

Salt, or Sodium Chloride (NaCl) is a vital constituent in humans and most creatures and important to our health. It is a principal component of a person’s internal environment. Sodium facilitates many bodily functions including fluid volume and acid-base balance. Sodium enables the transmission of nerve impulses around the body. It is an electrolyte, like potassium, calcium and magnesium and regulates the electrical charges moving in and out of the cells in the body.

The salt is fundamental to the operation of signals to and from the brain and the presence of sodium ions is essential for the contraction of muscles, including that largest and most important muscle, the heart. Without sufficient sodium, your senses would be dulled and your nerves would not function. It controls your taste, smell and tactile processes.

The isotonic salinity of blood and other body fluids is 0.9% NaCl. Salt is excreted by the kidneys and to survive, everyone needs to consume salt regularly. When you perspire, you lose salt excreted by sweat glands of your skin. An adult human body contains about 250 grams of salt and any excess is automatically disposed of by the body; and you can taste it in your tears.

Diet and health

Salt to which small quantities of potassium iodide have been added is widely used in areas where iodine is lacking from the diet, a deficiency that can cause swelling of the thyroid gland, commonly called goitre.

How much salt do we need? Renal excretion and sweat usually takes care of 12 g per day. Georges Widal recognized (1906) the body’s retention of sodium chloride as a feature of nephritis and cardiac edema, recommending salt deprivation in the treatment of both diseases.

Normally, kidney function manages to excrete a certain excess of salt but too high consumption increases blood volume and elevates blood pressure; therefore common treatment for hypertension are salt emitting diuretics. Too little induces tiredness, muscle weakness and hypotension. That has been known for a long time and therefore soldiers and sailors were provided with salt rations with the aim to make them strong and resistant. In the old days salt was also administered externally and in food to improve fertility.

A recently published study by Ulrika Söderlund (“Skrovmål“, Carlssons 2006) describes food supply and salt rations of the Swedish navy in the 16-17th century, where daily rations could reach 30 g per day! That happened during the time, when King Gustavus II Adolphus in 1628 built a large fleet including the “Vasa“ which on her maiden voyage sunk near Stockholm. This historic vessel was rescued and is on display and shows even details about contemporary food and beer supply vessels.

Penguins shake their heads

The right concentration of salt also is essential for animal life. There are birds like penguins and other seabirds who ingest their food with salty waters of the ocean. They get rid of salt by special glands close to their beak. This is to compensate for intake of high concentration saltwater. In order to facilitate final excretion, these birds tend to shake their heads to expel the salt from their beaks. This mechanism was first described in 1960 by the famous animal physiologist Knut Schmidt- Nielsen in the USA.

Professor Olav Thulesius
Sommarvägen 31
SE-582 74 Linköping, Sweden
e-mail: olav.thulesius@telia.com

References

1. Thulesisus O. Nicholas Culpeper, English physician and astrologer. McMillan/St Martin´s Press, London and New York 1992

2. Thulesisus O. Edison in Florida. The Green Laboratory. Gainsville FL, The University Press of Florida, 1997.

3. Thulesisus O. Harriet Becher Stowe in Florida 1867-84. Jefferson NC, McFarland & Co, 2001

4. Thulesisus O. John Ericsson, the man who designed the US Monitor. Jefferson NC, McFarland & Co, 2007

5. Dzaferagic S. Obituary – Stevan Dedijer and reformation of intelligence [health]. Rondel 2004; 20. URL: http://www.rondellen.net/health20_eng.htm

Published December 31, 2006