Maybe it is the type of salt you are consuming. Yes you could be correct that you are craving the minerals not the salt.
The Grain and Salt Society web site has a lot of info about salt. Their home page is Seasalt .com/index.html.">http://www.celtic- Seasalt .com/index.html.
Go to Seasalt .com/soddietkil.html">http://www.celtic-seasalt.com/soddietkil.html to read a short article "Sodium Restricted Diets Kill". It is from their site.
Another site that has some good info on salt is http://stopcancer.com/000/025.htm.

Strange coming across this message after so long! I remember having high blood pressure while at the dentist a few years ago but this message was 16 years old. Apparently you can have really high blood pressure while in pain. The last time I had it the pain was severe from an infected tooth I had pulled. The first dentist said it was impossible for my blood pressure to be that high from pain. I don't remember how high it was but he wanted me to go to a doctor and get my blood pressure under control before he would pull the tooth. Instead I went to a different dentist who pulled it without even taking my blood pressure.

Just to be on the safe side I ordered a blood pressure cuff from Amazon that day and by the time it had arrived my blood pressure was down to normal.

A few days ago a friend let me borrow their blood pressure cuff and I took it out of curiosity. It was 114 over 72 which I'm guessing is low for a 60 year old. I got a feeling that if I took it while I was in pain or right after working out that it would still be high. I wonder how many people are needlessly on high blood pressure medication because they are in pain or just nervous from being at the doctors. Looking back I think the high diastolic was probably caused from being in severe pain. When I googled it a lot of results suggested it could also be due to anxiety!

By the way I still eat a lot of salt but it is unrefined Celtic Sea Salt . My diet is also super high in cholesterol. I also use fish oil in place of other oils in huge amounts. My diet consists of only fruit, meat and vegetables. (No grains or refined carbohydrates like Sugar and corn suryp.) I used to only eat them fresh but recently have been eating tons of canned kale to save time and money.