INFLUENCE OF A LARGE AMOUNT OF SODIUM CHLORIDE INGESTION ON THE BASAL METABOLISM AND ON RESISTANCE TO COLD AND FROST-BITE

抄録

In spite of the common knowledge among physicians that the daily intake of as much as 30g. of sodium chloride will bring about disorders of various functions of the body to a considerable degree, the actual fact that the inhabit ants in North Manchuria take 40 g. or more every day during the winter months without any disorders in the body functions leads us to further study of the effect and significance of sodium chloride ingestion.
1) Daily intake of sodium chloride amounting to 50-60 g. by adding 10 g. to each meal causes a gradual rise in basal metabolism, good appetite, and energetic feeling of the body after several days. In this stage of high metabolic rate due to increased salt ingestion, both a rise in the oxygen consumption and a drop in the surface temperatures during exposure to cold are less in degree and the subject complains less than normal subjects. It is also proved that the temperature reaction of skin vessels to cold in the middle finger of a human subject as well as in the ear-lobe of a rabbit is intense enough to offer resistance to frost-bite.
2) When the increased salt formula is continued beyond this favourable stage, the displeasing symptoms known to all which are due to deposit of the excess salt manifest themselves before long.
3) Generally speaking, a rise in the body functions seems to be accompanied not with an increased amount of exchange but with the amount of sodium chloride held in the body, and there exists a marked seasonal difference in the ability of salt metabolism: the maximum amount which can be retained without any symptoms of excess is far greater during the period in late autumn and winter than during the rest of the year, and the body can take more salt during the winter months and can discharge more in urine in summer than during the rest of the year.