Salts

A salt is composed of an ionic combination of anions and cations.  You may recall Na+ (a cation) combining with Cl- (an anion) to form NaCl which is table salt.  When the salts of our body are placed in water, the ions dissociate meaning that Na+ separates from Cl-.  In the human body, anions and cations are essential for life from exciting muscles and neurons to blood clotting and release of neurotransmitters (a bunch of exciting stuff to learn about in BIO 141 and 142).  The 5 most common ions in the body are 4 cations (Na+, K+, Ca++, and Mg++) and 1 anion (Cl-).