…is bad for a person on a low salt regimen, KCl is okay.
True? It’s just the sodium that’s bad, but potassium isn’t?
I’m off to bed, but hope there’ll be replies when I wake up.
I’ve both been told in person, as well as read on internet sites, that the additional sodium you get from drinking and cooking with softened water is about equivalent to the amount in one or two slices of commercial white bread. I believe you’d have to have a very sensitive system for their to be much of an effect. But then I’m not on a low sodium diet either.
See here
In general for people on a low-salt diet, potassium chloride is marketed as an alternative seasoning. It is the sodium that’s the problem, not the chloride. Although they’re both alkali metals, and they’re next to each other in the series, they’re processed quite differently in the body. If the salt restriction is on account of hypertension, the extra potassium is not only a harmless substitute but can actually help.
That’s not to say that there’s no such thing as too much potassium, of course, but that’s another story.
Thanks, folks.
Why are you up so early in the morning, Malacandra?
Eight twenty-nine BST isn’t that early when you have a small boy who can’t tell the time but wakes up once the sky is light. 
1st rule of parenting - teach child to read clock.
2nd rule of parenting - blackout curtains are your friend. 
3rd rule of parenting - 5 year olds can get their own breakfast.
Si
Oh. That’s five hours later than what appears on my screen. You got a lot more sleep than I had imagined.
So, BST is…?
(I don’t want to guess wrong.)
British Summer Time.
Not what you were thinking, whatever it was. 
Namely, “Daylight Saving Time”, UK style.
I take some exception to the potassium being ‘harmless’ for people with hypertension. I have hypertension, and doctors do want you to cut sodium. But a number of the newer blood pressure meds/diuretics are also potassium sparing, meaning it’s easier for potassium to accumulate in the body and you shouldn’t have too much of that either. The salt substitutes are specifically off limits when taking those meds.
I’ve been on 3 such meds, and had a brush with hyperkalemia - too much potassium.
Which I don’t mind for the salt substitutes - they are clearly labeled as containing KCl. What pisses me off is a potato chip brand (can’t remember which) which looks like it has a lot lower sodium than other chips. Then you taste them and think, wow these taste salty, and realize they are most likely using KCl to compensate for the Na+, but they are NOT listing potassium in the nutrition panel. Not at all. I’m paying attention, But I worry that others are not, or wouldn’t realize the significance. </rant>
Well, if you’re on meds that mean potassium is more than usually harmful, then yes. This is the Dope, where anyone’s unusual experience invalidates any number of general rules.
Of course I could have hinted that it’s perfectly possible for too much potassium to be harmful, and then we wouldn’t have had this conversation.
Sorry for extrapolating too much with the meds issue. The OP was talking about a salt restriction and I thought it was likely that someone with a salt restriction would also be taking meds for blood pressure.
Even if he isn’t, patients who are on a truly low sodium diet (as opposed to the “eat less sodium” instruction we’re all given as a nation) is probably best off avoiding too much potassium, as well. Sodium and potassium work very interrelated jobs in cell metabolism*, and it’s not hard to set one off whack with too much or not enough of the other.
But sodium gets more press, because it’s so ubiquitous in our diets it’s really hard to avoid. Potassium is a bit more forgiving.
In addition to some forms of heart disease, Ménière’s disease is another in which *both *sodium and potassium need to be carefully controlled to stay healthy.
Given that **BarnOwl **recently had a question about hair loss during chemotherapy which sounded less than hypothetical, I’m going to recommend that he call his doctor to see if the potassium from the water softener is a problem or not. Probably not, but his system is pretty sensitive right now, and better safe than sorry.
I was asking for my wife’s benefit, WhyNot. Her doctors said she should stay on a low salt regimen. So years ago, when we had the water softener installed, I told the guy to bypass the kitchen sink so we wouldn’t have sodium chloride pouring from the kitchen sink.
Then recently, along comes a well meaning plumber with the “Potassium-ain’t-bad-for-you-so-you-can-buy-softener-bags-with-potassium
-chloride–pellets-and-live-happily-ever-after,” theory, which is why I started this thread.
With the advice garnered here, We’re much better off leaving the plumbing as is. Richtig? 
Ah, I see. Sorry to have presumed. Just looking out for ya!
Yes, I know, and thanks!