The Link Between Mercury Toxicity and Hypertension
Sodium is an essential constituent of every tissue in the body, whereas mercury is a toxin with no known role in physiology. Salt is so crucial to physiology that many mammals will actively seek it out in the form of salt licks and so important to humans that it was once used as currency, whereas mercury exposure is associated with neurodegenerative disease and is widely feared. But if a patient suffers from hypertension it is likely to be salt they are told to avoid, even though a drastic reduction in sodium intake has been shown to have only a minimal effect on blood pressure, resulting in average reductions in the order of 5.5/2.8 mm Hg .
