Salt. The most basic of minerals

[Paul]

It's not a food yet found in both food and drink.
It's more than just a mineral.
Without it or too much of it and you'll die.
Yet it's not often included in a preppers pack.

It's recommended that adults eat 2400 mg of sodium or 1 tea spoon a day.
For children up to 10 years of age this allowance is ½ tea spoon.

If you don't keep your salt levels correct, the effects can be dramatic.
Too little and it can stop your heart, cause cramping of your muscles, upset the fluid balance in your body, and cause confusion and an inability to think.

Drinking lots of water without salt replacement washes out salt from your body as does excessive sweating. Salt is important to hydration in our bodies. After exercise, you must replace both water and salt lost through perspiration during exercise.

When diarrhea dehydrates the body, we must use oral re-hydration therapy (ORT) to restore fluid levels especially when treating diseases like Norwork, Cholera, or any other rapid fluid level depleting disease.
Note:- With cholera is it not uncommon for a body to lose 1 liter of water per hour.

But what about too much salt?
Symptoms of increased salt intake include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal cramps.
Persistently high levels of sodium in the blood can result in swelling, high blood pressure, difficulty in breathing, kidney and heart failure, and may be fatal.

It does not stop there though. Salt has a few other uses.

1. Oral re hydration. A DIY recipe for this is 1/2 teaspoon of salt , 6 teaspoons of sugar, and a liter of water.
2. Soothe a bee sting. Wet the sting right away, then cover it with salt.
3. Repels fleas and ants, and to treat mosquito bites
4. Eliminate a grease fire. Pour salt on top to smother it. (Never use water on a grease fire.)
5. Test for rotten eggs. Put an egg in a cup of water to which you've added two teaspoons of salt. A fresh egg will sink, but one that's iffy will float.
6. Clean teeth. Use one part fine salt to two parts baking soda.
7. Mix equal parts salt and baking soda in water for a fresh and deodorizing mouth rinse and gargle to ease throat problems.
8. Salt works as an effective yet gentle scouring agent.
9. Salt also serves as a catalyst for other ingredients, such as vinegar, to boost cleaning and deodorizing action.
10. It's also good as a barter item.

Neat stuff is salt.