Health Advantages of Sea Salt

By now, you've probably heard that sea salt is good for you, but you may not know exactly why this ingredient has so many health benefits. Sea salt provides the body with a number of nutrients, and is easy to find in most grocery stores.

Antihistamine

• If you suffer from seasonal allergies or asthma, try using sea salt. Placing the salt on your tongue after drinking a couple of glasses of water can improve breathing and clear mucus from your lungs. Using sea salt on a regular basis as an asthma treatment may work just as well as a prescription inhaler.

Antidepressant

• Sea salt can also be used as an antidepressant; a number of naturopathic doctors use salt to help boost and maintain tryptamine, seratonin and melatonin levels in patients. Lithium, which is used in some antidepressant medications, is a salt substitute that is used to treat depressed patients. These chemicals can also promote sound sleep; sea salt is a natural hypnotic as well, so placing a few granules on the tongue after drinking a glass of water can bring about healthy, restful sleep.

Blood Sugar

• Diabetics may benefit from sea salt since the substance balances blood sugar levels, and decreases the need for insulin injections. Sea salt can also stimulate the function of the kidneys, so that the excess acid in the body can be excreted through the urine, and the body's pH levels can be properly maintained.

Table Salt vs Sea Salt

• One of the main reasons people often think that salt is bad is that table salt does not have the trace minerals that sea salt provides. There is calcium, potassium and magnesium in sea salt, but these ingredients are often lost when salt is processed in order to become table salt. Anti-caking agents are also added to table salt, and the substance has almost no nutritional value. High amounts of table salt have been linked to heart problems, high blood pressure and kidney disease.