Here are a few points:
1) sodium (salt for practical purposes) is consumed by most people in the US
far beyond the daily recommendation of 2,000 mg (2.4 grams).. in fact many
routinely consume 4 - 6 grams (6,000mg) daily. The vast, vast majority of
that is in food stuffs, not water..
2) only about 18 - 19% of those with high blood pressure are sodium
dependent, meaning that sodium restriction will effect their
diastolic/systolic readings.. for the average hypertensive sodium
restriction will have minimal to no impact, (unless that person is really
taking in major excess sodium routinely) .. if however you are one of those
18 - 19%, then sodium restriction will be an issue.. also if you have other
sodium sensitive problems, ie congestive heart failure, etc, then sodium
restriction will be very important as well
3) blood pressure is genetically determined. If you have high blood
pressure, it is certainly prudent to limit salt intake, at least by stopping
salt additions to food (as most food has abundant sodium to begin with).
It's your genetics.. this is similar to why some can smoke and not get lung
disease, cancer, high blood pressure, peripheral vascular disease, strokes,
heart disease, etc., as quickly/severely as many others will. Trouble is, we
can't genetically predict who will experience the side effects of smoking,
etc.. so it's a roll of the dice, for those that like to gamble that is..
back to topic at hand..
4) older softeners added up to 300 mg/quart (liter) of softened water. So by
simple math, drinking one gallon of water each day would provide 1200mg, or
half of the total recommended daily sodium intake
5) newer (demand regeneration units) softeners are more salt efficient
(thanks to California initiatives that started that back around 1978/79),
cutting sodium exchange by as much as 50% or even more.
6) the amount of sodium added by any softener depends on the water hardness
that is being introduced to the unit.. the harder the water, the more sodium
that is added during the ion exchange process. Most units today add a
maximum of 8mg/liter for each grain of hardness, so for an initial water
hardness of 20 grains they would add a maximum of approx.160mg/liter of
softened water (much less than the older units of 300mg/liter for similar
hardness)
7) recommendations for sodium intake in drinking water is much lower, being
only 20mg/liter, but again, you need to look at "where the $$ is", which
really is in food intake primarily, not the water.
8) there are potassium exchange resins, which add potassium, not salt, which
is great, unless you have/develop potassium sensitive medical problems, ie
renal (kidney) failure, etc... then these can cause major
morbidity/mortality
9) sodium exchanged, BTW, binds to chlorides in the water to make "salt"..
sodium does not exist in the free state (+ charged ion) in water
Happy ponding
Greg


wrote in message
...
I used softened water for my GF for years with no problem. I added some
organic
dolomitic limestone to the water. I drank softened water for years. I
have low
blood pressure. Ingrid

I think that using Softened water for any kind of fish is not a great
idea.
Its very much too soft & depleted & then again much too full of Sodium
ions
to be good for them (which is why we humans shouldn't drink it either!).