Sodium (Salt, Soda, Etc) Acts Like Naltrexone

haidut

Member
Forum Supporter
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
19,798
Location
USA / Europe
Hi all,

I have been researching this lately, since I have always wondered why salt is thermogenic. It looks like one of the main reasons is that salt acts like a functional opioid "receptor" antagonist, very similar to naltrexone. As you probably know, all opioid agonists (alcohol, morphine, heroin, etc) reduce core body temperature, while naltrexone and salt raise it. It turns out that the opioid antagonism effect of salt was known since the early 1970s, but now there is renewed interest in it with the hope of reigning in side effects of many drugs that act on the opioid system. Here is an article that I just found:

http://www.scripps.edu/newsandviews/e_2 ... evens.html

"...That mystery concerned the role of sodium. The element is perhaps best known to biologists as one of the key “electrolytes” needed for the basic workings of cells. In the early 1970s, researchers in the laboratory of neuroscientist Solomon Snyder at Johns Hopkins University, who had helped discover opioid receptors, found evidence that sodium ions also act as a kind of switch on opioid receptor signaling. They noted that at concentrations normally found in brain fluid, these ions reduced the ability of opioid peptides and drugs like morphine to interact with opioid receptors."

So, couple of interesting possibilities here. Maybe people who don't react well to naltrexone can replace it with salt/soda. If naltrexone has such broad protective effects against disease like MS, cancer, PD, lupus, AD, etc then maybe salt has similar positive effects. Also, loading up on salt/soda should make you more resilient to getting drunk. Maybe I'll try the latter experiment tonight:):
 

Ben

Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2013
Messages
497
I wonder if lithium has the same effect, since it acts in a similar way to sodium. RP wrote a paper in which he mentioned that alcoholics have too much melatonin, and alcoholism is more common up north because of it. He mentioned lithium can help them because it suppresses melatonin production at the level of the pineal gland. It makes me wonder if fluoride can also help alcoholics, since it calcifies the pineal. Lithium and fluoride both interfere with iodine conversion into thyroid hormone in the thyroid gland as well.

Lithium could also be an opioid inhibitor and exert its effects that way for alcoholism in addition to suppressing melatonin.
 
OP
haidut

haidut

Member
Forum Supporter
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
19,798
Location
USA / Europe
Ben said:
I wonder if lithium has the same effect, since it acts in a similar way to sodium. RP wrote a paper in which he mentioned that alcoholics have too much melatonin, and alcoholism is more common up north because of it. He mentioned lithium can help them because it suppresses melatonin production at the level of the pineal gland. It makes me wonder if fluoride can also help alcoholics, since it calcifies the pineal. Lithium and fluoride both interfere with iodine conversion into thyroid hormone in the thyroid gland as well.

Lithium could also be an opioid inhibitor and exert its effects that way for alcoholism in addition to suppressing melatonin.

Funny, I thought the same thing. Ray wrote in his articles about similarities between sodium and lithium, but the comparisons he drew were mostly related to their effect on mitochondria number and size (i.e. both substances boost number and size of mitochondria, especially in the brain for lithium). He also hinted that lithium is anti-serotonergic and I saw some studies on PubMed claiming that of the various metals lithium has the highest affinity for binding with serotonin and making it inactive. Sodium was next, then magnesium, then potassium. We know that lowering serotonin also promotes mitochondrial function, so that maybe the mechanism behind the metabolism boosting effects of both sodium and lithium.
Red light also lowers melatonin dramatically - by over 80%. You can search PubMed for "red light melatonin" and tons of studies come up. So, that may be a great treatment option for alcoholics and people living up north.
Anyways, fascinating how such a simple substance as sodium is at the core of so many vital "receptors" and affects them in usually healthy ways. Maybe the ancient people knew about those benefits and valued salt more than gold. There is a lot of evidence that their perception of salt was not just due to its food-preserving qualities.
 
OP
haidut

haidut

Member
Forum Supporter
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
19,798
Location
USA / Europe

nograde

Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
134
Ray Peat already outlined the mechanism behind the thermogenic effect in http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/salt.shtml :

"When there is adequate sodium in the extracellular fluid, the continuous inward movement of sodium ions into the resting cell activates an enzyme, sodium-potassium ATPase, causing ATP to break down into ADP and phosphate, which stimulates the consumption of fuel and oxygen to maintain an adequate level of ATP. Increasing the concentration of sodium increases the energy consumption and carbon dioxide production of the cell. The sodium, by increasing carbon dioxide production, protects against the excitatory, toxic effects of the intracellular calcium."

So in essence (and "mainstream terms") to keep the cellular potassium/sodium gradient stable, excess sodium has to be "pumped" out of the cell via the sodium-potassium "pump". ATP is needed for that process, so in turn to make up for the lost ATP respiration has to increase which produces more carbon dioxide and heat.

The net-effect seems to be like that of mitochondrial uncouplers (e.g. Aspirin), but without uncoupling.
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2013
Messages
7,370
Does anyone remember where Ray Peat described that process and then wrote the same thing in membrane pump words? It was pretty awesome and bold. I cannot find it anymore.
 
OP
haidut

haidut

Member
Forum Supporter
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
19,798
Location
USA / Europe
Joined
Jan 17, 2016
Messages
175
He mentioned lithium can help them because it suppresses melatonin production at the level of the pineal gland. It makes me wonder if fluoride can also help alcoholics, since it calcifies the pineal. Lithium and fluoride both interfere with iodine conversion into thyroid hormone in the thyroid gland as well.

Hi Ben!
Are you saying that fluoride is a good thing because it calcifies the pineal gland???
Also, can you reword this at all? I'm not getting the whole gist of it.
Thanks! :D
 

Parsifal

Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2015
Messages
1,081
Wow, this is very interesting. I wonder why some people have water retention with salt though.

By the way, isn't casein an opioid agonist and promoting growth hormone?
 

shepherdgirl

Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
707
Wow, this is very interesting. I wonder why some people have water retention with salt though.

By the way, isn't casein an opioid agonist and promoting growth hormone?
Where did you hear that it promoted growth hormone?
Dr. Peat said that casein seemed to possess antistress effects: "Milk in context: allergies, ecology, and some myths"
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom