evidence: Heart Health High Blood Pressure Living With Eating Salt When You Have High Blood Pressure By Mark Stibich, PhD Updated on September 10, 2024 Medically reviewed by Rafle Fernandez, MD Print Salt (sodium) is essential to our bodies. Normally your kidneys control your level of salt. If you consume too much salt, the kidneys pass it into the urine. But when our salt intake levels are very high, the kidneys might not be able to keep up, and the salt can remain in the body. Salt attracts water to balance the concentration in the blood. When there is too much salt in the blood, the salt draws more water into the blood. More water increases the volume of blood, which raises blood pressure. Blood pressure refers to the amount of pressure on the walls of your arteries. Think of a garden hose. When the water is off, there is no pressure on the walls of the hose. When the water is on halfway, there is some pressure on the walls of the hose. When the water is on full the way, there is more pressure on the walls of the hose.