Hello all,
NiJuIchi, jwhitele said that "when there is a drop in the water content in the blood, the salt concentration in the blood increases and you become thirsty. When there are high levels of salt in the blood, our cells release fluids into the bloodstream to compensate, thus raising blood pressure and creating stress."
I am going to try saying the same thing in another way. Here goes. As water is lost from our bodies, the concentration of salt in our body then proportionately increases. This then makes the salt concentration higher in the spaces between our cells. When this happens, water then travels from the cell, across the cell membrane, and into the spaces between the cells towards the more highly concentrated salt (the process is called osmosis). If severe enough, this can interfere with the normal function of the cells creating stress on the body and potentially lead to death.
If you didn't understand that, lets try this. Have you ever salted a slug or a plant to kill it? Same principle of osmosis working in both of these situations. The water is drawn from the area of less concentrated salt to the area of more highly concentrated salt. This is the reason that people can't drink large amounts of ocean water. The concentration of salt in the stomach becomes high enough that water is drwn out of the rest of the body tissues causing severe dehydration in the body leading to death.
Hope this further clarified the principles in question. If not, look up osmosis on the web or in a referrance book of some sort.
Sincerely,
Gregory
