"Sodium Chloride, Not a Trace of It."

[ZapBrannigan]

This guy should have watched Star Trek like the rest of us. He would have known that salt depletion can kill you:

Man took diet advice from ChatGPT, ended up hospitalized with hallucinations

A 60-year-old man ended up in the ER after becoming convinced his neighbor was trying to poison him. In reality, the culprit was ChatGPT diet advice.

www.yahoo.com

There's even a book called All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek. I have it somewhere, haven't read it in years, but you could do a lot worse than Star Trek for basic advice, I'd say from TOS up through the Berman Era. And then I'd cool it.

But I'm seeing indications all over the place that relying on A.I. is potentially dangerous. Even if you carefully ask the right questions, it can "hallucinate" the answers, to tell you what you want to hear.

 

[fireproof78]

Well, sadly, we had a societal event where trust in our fellow humans was sadly eroded and made relationships difficult, while creating a larger background anxiety. AI Chat is more convenient and easier in many views than talking to people.

 

[Tosk]

The dude didn't just cut salt from his diet, he substituted sodium bromide.

I don't know what it is with some people blindly trusting LLMs. I wonder sometimes how they've made it this far in life.

 

[Poltargyst]

Well, sadly, we had a societal event where trust in our fellow humans was sadly eroded and made relationships difficult, while creating a larger background anxiety.

What was that?

 

[fireproof78]

What was that?

Covid.

 

[Forbin]

My father told me about an incident in Army training in 1944. He was stationed in Texas at the time, and they took salt pills regularly to make up for the sweating. Well he decided he didn't like them. One day while marching drills in the sun, he felt himself going wobbly, and said to the guy marching next to him, "I'm going out now," and fainted. At least he had the courtesy to tell the guy first, who caught him, and dragged his wobbly semi-conscious ass around the rest of the parade. Dad woke up in his bunk later, and never skipped his salt pills again.

 

[publiusr]

My Mom suffered hyponatremia—a plague of joggers mostly.

The doctor wanted my Dad to cut back on sodium, so my Mom used No-Salt as seasoning.

She would guzzle water…and washed quite a bit of sodium out of her system. It didn’t help that she got 3,000 rads worth of radiation treatment back in the early 1970’s—Exorcist doctor era.

After a fainting spell where she “fell out,” the doctor told her to eat the saltiest bag of potato chips she could find on the way home.

She had problem gaining weight—the opposite of Dad…she’d eat something rich…naturally he would want it too. That was never going to work.

 

[johnnybear]

The creatures of M-113 must have had a salt diet from prey animals at one time. Maybe a cattle like our cows perhaps? They couldn't have attacked each other as that wouldn't indicate a magnificent society which the ruins at least gave that impression.
JB

 

[Metryq]

Give them Brawndo. It's got electrolytes!

 

[Forbin]

My bro-in-law is a devout runner, and used to do marathons when he was younger. I remember visiting once (they live in NC, I'm in NJ). He was out for a long run when we arrived (dead of summer). He came jogging into their back porch and chugged a quart of Gatorade while sweating so much he literally made a puddle. This was fun?

 

[Ovation]

My bro-in-law is a devout runner, and used to do marathons when he was younger. I remember visiting once (they live in NC, I'm in NJ). He was out for a long run when we arrived (dead of summer). He came jogging into their back porch and chugged a quart of Gatorade while sweating so much he literally made a puddle. This was fun?

No matter what he said, no. No it wasn’t.

 

[Kraig]

I live in a hot arid irrigated desert. I also have high blood pressure, but it isn't caused by salt levels. My primary care physician, and his replacement after he retired, both have said, "have you tried reducing your salt intake". I then ask, are my sodium, chlorine or potassium levels high? They look at my fasting blood labs (all the numbers are exactly in the middle of the low and high recommendation) and say "forget what I just said, continue to eat the same amount of salt". If I don't get enough salt, I will start getting muscle cramps in my legs.

 

[SatrianiRules]

I live in a hot arid irrigated desert. I also have high blood pressure, but it isn't caused by salt levels. My primary care physician, and his replacement after he retired, both have said, "have you tried reducing your salt intake". I then ask, are my sodium, chlorine or potassium levels high? They look at my fasting blood labs (all the numbers are exactly in the middle of the low and high recommendation) and say "forget what I just said, continue to eat the same amount of salt". If I don't get enough salt, I will start getting muscle cramps in my legs.

Are you of African descent? because for whatever reasons ( they are still trying to determine), afro/black individuals seem to be more susceptible to sodium related hypertension, than other groups even with proper hydration, which is why many are advised to limit salt intake, just one of those things that make you go: "Hmmm..."

 

[SatrianiRules]

This guy should have watched Star Trek like the rest of us. He would have known that salt depletion can kill you:

Man took diet advice from ChatGPT, ended up hospitalized with hallucinations

A 60-year-old man ended up in the ER after becoming convinced his neighbor was trying to poison him. In reality, the culprit was ChatGPT diet advice.

www.yahoo.com

There's even a book called All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek. I have it somewhere, haven't read it in years, but you could do a lot worse than Star Trek for basic advice, I'd say from TOS up through the Berman Era. And then I'd cool it.

But I'm seeing indications all over the place that relying on A.I. is potentially dangerous. Even if you carefully ask the right questions, it can "hallucinate" the answers, to tell you what you want to hear.

What is distressing is that more and more people are turning to AI for therapy sessions...this is dangerous

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Sodium bromide as a salt substitute? That not only involves taking something pharmacologically active (anybody remember bromides as tranquilizers? Anybody remember the original formulation of "Bromo-Seltzer"?), but completely fails to address the primary reason for cutting down on salt (excessive sodium in the diet).

As to the salt vampire, the whole concept of a halovore is preposterous. Doc-Smith-level preposterous*. Consider: (1) Sodium tends to form water-soluble ionic compounds. There are exceptions, like the mineral albite, one of the feldspars, but sodium's general tendency is to form soluble salts. (2) Chlorides also tend to be water-soluble. There are exceptions there, too, mostly organic compounds, like the chlorinated hydrocarbons, the chlorocarbons, and the chlorofluorocarbons, but again, the chloride ion tends to form soluble compounts. (3) Na+ and Cl- ions have a particularly strong affinity for each other.

I suspect that it would be extremely difficult to find some reaction that consumes salt, ties up either the sodium or the chlorine (or both) in some way that removes it from the environment, and yields sufficient energy that an organism's metabolic processes can be based on it. Or a way for such an organism to suck every last trace of salt from another organism.

_____
* You know, E. E. "Doc" Smith, postulating radium as currency and/or jewelry (never mind the danger from radiation; consider the radioactive decay!), and iron (the most stable element on the whole periodic table, with neither fission nor fusion yielding so much as a picojoule of energy per gigagram of iron) as a source of energy for an FTL star-drive.

 

[Kraig]

Are you of African descent? because for whatever reasons ( they are still trying to determine), afro/black individuals seem to be more susceptible to sodium related hypertension, than other groups even with proper hydration, which is why many are advised to limit salt intake, just one of those things that make you go: "Hmmm..."

No, on my mother's side was French and German, father's side Scottish and English. But you have to know your own blood work and ask your doctor questions, or they can make your life worse, if they try to use a "one size fits all" approach to health care.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Sodium bromide as a salt substitute? That not only involves taking something pharmacologically active (anybody remember bromides as tranquilizers? Anybody remember the original formulation of "Bromo-Seltzer"?), but completely fails to address the primary reason for cutting down on salt (excessive sodium in the diet).

As to the salt vampire, the whole concept of a halovore is preposterous. Doc-Smith-level preposterous*. Consider: (1) Sodium tends to form water-soluble ionic compounds. There are exceptions, like the mineral albite, one of the feldspars, but sodium's general tendency is to form soluble salts. (2) Chlorides also tend to be water-soluble. There are exceptions there, too, mostly organic compounds, like the chlorinated hydrocarbons, the chlorocarbons, and the chlorofluorocarbons, but again, the chloride ion tends to form soluble compounts. (3) Na+ and Cl- ions have a particularly strong affinity for each other.

I suspect that it would be extremely difficult to find some reaction that consumes salt, ties up either the sodium or the chlorine (or both) in some way that removes it from the environment, and yields sufficient energy that an organism's metabolic processes can be based on it. Or a way for such an organism to suck every last trace of salt from another organism.

Maybe the episode didn't spell out the whole story of what this creature is doing.

From what I'm seeing, IRL "Sodium chloride is essential for maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance, regulating blood pressure, and enabling nerve impulse transmission and muscle contractions. It provides the body with sodium and chloride ions, which are crucial electrolytes that control extracellular fluid volume, acid-base balance, and the transport of nutrients into cells. These functions are vital for overall cellular homeostasis and the proper functioning of the nervous and muscular systems."

My take is that the salt vampire uses salt for the same functions we do, but just needs a ton of it for some reason. She gets her protein, fats, and carbohydrates off camera, probably from eating insects and grubs. Aboard ship, she was filching food in the mess hall quite easily, with her powers of hypnosis. Just join somebody who's eating alone, and dine off their tray.

 

[SatrianiRules]

No, on my mother's side was French and German, father's side Scottish and English. But you have to know your own blood work and ask your doctor questions, or they can make your life worse, if they try to use a "one size fits all" approach to health care.

which is EXACTLY what it is: one size fits all...treatments and therapies are determined by algorithms, my sister spend more time arguing with Insurance providers than she spends with her patients.

 

[SatrianiRules]

No, on my mother's side was French and German, father's side Scottish and English. But you have to know your own blood work and ask your doctor questions, or they can make your life worse, if they try to use a "one size fits all" approach to health care.

more and more , genetics are playing a role in certain conditions, I have high cholesterol, even though I eat pretty well and exercise. my MD told me that I have the genetic marker for high Cholesterol and no amount of diet/exercise will correct it, of course making poor choices WILL worsen it.