Read those Labels, Cut the Salt and Cut Your Risk of Heart Disease
A new study reports that consuming less salt will not only lower blood pressure, but may reduce the risk of heart disease overall.
Low-salt diets have been shown to lower blood pressure, so a link to overall heart health seems logical.
The study, published in the current issue of the British Medical Journal, reports that even in people whose blood pressure was not excessively high, less salt could have big impact on the heart.
Specifically, researchers found that reducing the amount of salt in the diet can lower the risk of total cardiovascular disease by 25 percent to 30 percent in those following a low-salt diet.
Lead researcher Nancy Cook said:
Dietary intake of sodium among Americans is excessively high.Cook, who is also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, added,
Our study suggests that reducing the level of salt in the diet would lead to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
Sodium is known to affect blood pressure levels, particularly among people with high blood pressure, according to Cook.
Among hypertensive individuals, lowering sodium is pretty well established to lower blood pressure,she said. Now it looks like reducing sodium also has an effect on cardiovascular disease.
In the study, researchers examined people from two trials that analyzed the effect of reduced salt consumption on blood pressure.
All the participants in the trials had "high-normal" blood pressure which is sometimes called "pre-hypertension" were at increased risk of developing heart disease.
The first Trial of Hypertension Prevention, completed in 1990, consisted of 744 people; the second trial had 2,382 participants, which ended in 1995.
People in both trials reduced their salt intake by about 25 percent to 35 percent. Each trial also included a control group that did not reduce salt intake.
The researchers found that those who reduced their salt intake were 25 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease 10 to 15 years after the trials ended. There was also a 20 percent lower death rate from cardiovascular disease among those who cut their salt consumption.
Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University School of Medicine's Prevention Research Center and a nationally renowned authority on nutrition, weight control, and the prevention of chronic disease said,
Our food supply makes meaningful reductions in salt intake all but impossibly difficult for most people. The salt we shake onto our food contributes far less to most diets than salt processed into foods. Even foods we would never think of as salty, such as breakfast cereals, cookies, and even some soft drinks, often contain copious additions of sodium.
This study, according to the authors, is the first and only study of sufficient size and duration to assess the effects of a low salt diet on cardiovascular problems.
Common high-sodium culprits include pickles, olives, luncheon meats, convenience foods like boxed or frozen meals and side dishes, soups, sauces and restaurant meals.
Read package labels and look for foods that have no added salt or are reduced in sodium.
Read more: Cutting down on salt, visit the American Heart Association
Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School
