Chloride is needed to maintain our ideal acid-alkaline, or pH balance. What does this mean? The pH balance of our body is crucial to our proper functioning. An acidic environment is not ideal. It robs our cells of oxygen and allows harmful visitors to thrive. Instead, we want a slightly alkaline environment inside our body. These conditions favor the good and repel the bad. The good being our own enzymes, beneficial bacteria and plenty of oxygen. The bad being viruses, moulds, fungi and bad bacteria. Chloride works to keep this balance in our favor.

Then there’s hydration. Chloride works side by side with sodium and together they control the osmotic pressure inside our body, better known as our hydration levels. Sodium and chloride work to move water in and out of our cells. This maintains the perfectly hydrated environment. This sodium chloride is easily recognized as salt. So an adequate intake of water, along with a moderate intake of salt and other electrolytes, all work together to keep our body hydrated and functioning.

Chloride also works with sodium and potassium to help maintain our blood pressure and blood volume. This is the amount of blood circulating in our body and the rate at which our heart pumps it around. It's an essential control for our heart health and general well being.

Chloride also plays a part in our digestion. Digestive juices in our stomach, better known as hydrochloric acid, are composed of chloride. These juices are responsible for the proper breakdown of food, which in turn, helps in the proper absorption of nutrients.

Although chloride is found in salt (sodium chloride), it is also found in vegetables and many processed foods containing salt, like bread, cheese and sauces. Due to the harmful effects of an excessive salt intake, and the fact that many of us well nourished people in developed countries have more than enough salt in our diet, it is not recommended to increase our dose!

Chloride deficiency does not normally result from a diet that’s low in salt or chloride; instead, it results from an excessive loss.

Chloride is expelled from our body through sweat. Moderate exercise followed by proper hydration and an adequate food intake, is normally enough to replenish what is lost. During excessive exercise and sweating, and without proper intervals for hydration, our body can quickly become deficient. Those involved in ultra marathons or ironman triathlons can experience this.

Our body can also expel a great deal of electrolytes, chloride being one of them, during continuous vomiting or diarrhea. This is why some fevers and flus can have such an impact on our body. If we can’t keep anything down or in, then our body’s hydration levels suffer and can become unbalanced. Consequently, this has a chain reaction on many other functions in our body.

Fluid retention can also cause a deficiency. When we retain fluid it dilutes the chloride in our body. This can result from kidney disease, certain medications, or an increased production in the antidiuretic hormone. This is a hormone that helps to regulate urination. An extreme dilution of electrolytes can also be caused by a water overdose. Drinking extremely high amounts of water has had fatal endings.