The purpose of drinking water in the morning is to replenish the water lost during the night and to dilute the blood. Research and practice show that plain boiled water is the best choice for this task.
Any beverage containing salt, sugar, oil, or any combination thereof, regardless of concentration, cannot provide the health benefits of plain boiled water. On the contrary, it may further concentrate the blood. Under normal physiological conditions, the human body's requirement for salt is very small, only 2-3 grams per day, which can be fully met by a natural diet. Without excessive sweating or other special needs, there is no need to drink light salt water, and it is especially unnecessary to develop the habit of doing so. Sometimes, for oral disinfection or to relieve a sore throat, gargling with light salt water is an effective method, but this is not the same as drinking light salt water. 2. Drinking light salt water in the morning carries certain risks.
For both healthy individuals and patients with hypertension or other diseases accompanied by hypertension (such as diabetes), increasing salt intake can raise blood pressure. For healthy people, the result of a blood pressure increase may not be significant enough to push their readings out of the normal range, but for hypertensive patients, it could be an added burden, leading to fluctuations in their condition.
Furthermore, for everyone, the morning is when blood viscosity is highest and blood pressure reaches its first peak of the day. For patients with heart disease, the early morning is the most dangerous period for condition fluctuations. Therefore, any factor that can increase blood pressure, such as drinking light salt water, should be avoided. This is especially important for hypertensive patients. 3. Individuals and groups are different; it varies from person to person.
In terms of diet, "individual" and "group" are two different concepts. Sometimes, we encounter situations where some people consume a lot of salt but their blood pressure does not increase as a result. In fact, this is not surprising—the view that "high salt intake leads to high blood pressure" is derived from a group perspective and is a principle applicable to the vast majority of individuals in that group. When it comes to a specific person, due to individual differences, the situation may not be the same. A small number of people may show various deviations, but this does not mean we can deny the universal principle that applies to the group based on the particularity of an individual. From a scientific standpoint, it is the safest and most appropriate approach for an individual to use the basic principles of the group to guide their own diet. If an individual can adhere to the group principle of avoiding high salt intake, they can minimize the dietary risk factors that lead to high blood pressure.