Hello, friends!
I am someone who got diagnosed with POTS in 2020. I never drank water with salt or any electrolytes because it didn’t feel like something that made sense for me symptoms-wise. Ever since I got the flu at the end of last year, I’ve had a much harder time retaining liquids. (I think this has honestly always been a problem for me, but especially so these past few months.) I started putting a small amount of salt in my hand to put in my mouth before taking any drinks of water, and then consuming a small amount of salt after I was done drinking. I have tried during this time to also put salt in my water bottle: starting with 1/4 tsp in 16-17 oz. of water, and then trying 1/8 tsp in the same amount of water. I have even tried putting less than 1/8 tsp in my water bottle (16-17 oz.). However, whenever I try to drink water that has salt in it, it causes me to have heart palpitations and feel jittery. When I place salt on my tongue before and after drinking water, it helps me tremendously, and I feel no ill effects. It has helped me to not pee clear and to have much more energy. It has helped with some other POTS symptoms I’ve been having lately as well. I always track my salt/sodium intake and other nutrition-related content (MyFitnessPal), and that hasn’t changed (around the standard upper limit of 2300mg sodium. When I try to increase my salt intake with food much beyond this, it doesn’t help me at all.) So I’ve found what helps me so far is placing salt on my tongue before and after drinking.
I guess my question is… why does it help when I do this, but it causes me to feel awful when I drink salted water?
Thank you in advance!