Can licking salt reduce anxiety?

Hyderabad: A post claiming that anxiety attacks can be controlled by licking salt or putting it on your tongue is doing the rounds on social media. "This little trick can distract you from anxiety and ground you by engaging your senses," it claims.

Does this trick really work? Let's find out.

Fact Check

What is anxiety?

Medline Plus explains anxiety as a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness. It might cause you to sweat, feel restless and tense, and have a rapid heartbeat. It can be a normal reaction to stress. For example, you might feel anxious when faced with a difficult problem at work, before taking a test, or before making an important decision, it says.

Anxiety turns into a disorder when anxiety does not get better or gets worse over time and keeps reoccurring. The condition becomes severe when the symptoms start to interfere with one's daily activities such as school, office, interactions, etc.

Can licking salt help?

No, licking salt for anxiety comes with cardiovascular complications. A study has shown that anxiety disorders are associated with the onset and progression of cardiac disease, and in many instances have been linked to adverse cardiovascular outcomes, including mortality.

Excessive salt consumption may result in unpleasant complications. According to one study, "Excessive dietary salt (sodium chloride) intake is associated with an increased risk for hypertension, which in turn is especially a major risk factor for stroke and other cardiovascular pathologies, but also kidney diseases."

Apart from this, a salt intake of less than 5 grams (approximately 2g sodium) per person per day is recommended by WHO for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

However, Anxiety.org suggests taking a soothing salt bath to calm your mind in case of an anxiety attack. "A cleansing bath is a simple way to calm your anxiety and clear your energy. Set up your bathroom with candles and soothing music and prepare a warm bath with sea salt, lavender and baking soda. Each of these ingredients help shift, soothe and recharge your energy vibration," it says.

We could not find any clinical trial performed on whether salt can be used to control anxiety attacks. There is no evidence to back the claim. Hence, the claim is false.