Little Crystals: A Low Sodium Journey Through the Salted Land (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781460984932)

Brett L. Marks was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1957. He attended Lehigh University in Bethelehm, PA and graduated in 1978 with a degree in Government. He then attended law school at the University of Houston in Houston, TX and after graduation in 1981 began his legal career as a corporate attorney for one of the largest companies in the world, where he has spent his entire career. Brett met his wife, Marjorie, in law school, and they were married the day after graduation. They have two adult daughters. Today, Brett is a passionate advocate for low sodium living. Given his profession, Brett admits that he has lived a high stress lifestyle and as the decades advanced, he paid the price for it - high blood pressure, high cholesterol and reduced kidney function. And nighttime headaches that by his late forties, were getting worse and more frequent. A doctor's advice to reduce sodium intake to no more than 1,500 milligrams per day has literally changed his life. Along with medication, a change in diet and a regular exercise program consisting of weight training and cardio work, he has been able to eliminate the symptoms and become much healthier. He worked at reducing sodium intake first, and then added the diet and exercise components as he began to feel better. The challenge is to get started. Brett has extensively researched sodium sensitivity, the benefits of a reduced sodium diet, and how to make the needed changes in shopping, cooking and eating. There are few comprehensive resources available to learn how to make these changes. Hard work and persistence are the keys. He did not want all of this research and work to end up in a thick manila folder in the closet, so he began to put his discoveries and ideas into a loose manuscript which eventually morphed into his first book, Little Crystals. Brett plans to focus on sodium management for the rest of his life. He loves to stress to people that salt is not evil, it just needs to be aggressively managed. Attitudinal adjustment is half the battle. Millions of people are in the populations identified by the government and medical professionals as needing to follow this path. Brett hopes to reach out to as many of them as possible with this book.