# Salt causing heart palpitations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-causing-heart-palpitations/733105 "2015-10-01T02:44:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brovolone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@brovolone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brovolone)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-causing-heart-palpitations/733105/1 "2015-10-01T02:44:32Z")
Is it possible that excessive salt (like that of really salty McDonald’s fries) could give someone fluttery heart palpitations? ---
**Author:** ![Saturn\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Saturn\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saturn_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-causing-heart-palpitations/733105/2 "2015-10-01T09:32:21Z")
Excessive salt, msg, nitrates, etc. may all cause heart palpitations. Ironically, sodium deficiency can cause it too. ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-causing-heart-palpitations/733105/3 "2015-10-03T07:09:26Z")
Notwithstanding the potentially detrimental consequences of “excessive”, as in a mass quantities of, salt, I don’t think eating a bag of Micky D salty fries is going to cause heart palpitations, particularly in an otherwise reasonably (or perhaps even marginally) healthy person. In fact there’s slightly less salt in a couple slices of [garden variety white bread](http://franzbakery.com/products/whole-grain-white/) than in a [medium bag of GagDonald’s fries](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fast-foods-generic/8054/2).