Eating less salt doesn't cut heart risks: study

[Elmore Furth]

Low calcium intake has been thought to be more important than high sodium in some people in the causation of high blood pressure.

Potassium has also been thought to help in the modulation of blood pressure.

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/68b658ss

http://www.everydayhealth.com/hypertension/get-your-minerals.aspx

By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK | Tue May 3, 2011 5:45pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who ate lots of salt were not more likely to get high blood pressure, and were less likely to die of heart disease than those with a low salt intake, in a new European study.

The findings "certainly do not support the current recommendation to lower salt intake in the general population," study author Dr. Jan Staessen, of the University of Leuven in Belgium, told Reuters Health.

Current salt guidelines, including those released by the U.S. government in January, are based on data from short-term studies of people who volunteered to be assigned to a low-salt or high-salt diet, Staessen said.

The U.S. guidelines recommend that Americans consume less than 2,300 milligrams of salt daily - 1,500 mg in certain people who are more at risk for high blood pressure or heart disease.

Eating less salt doesn't cut heart risks: study
>

[murphyj87]

1. In my 15 year odyssey.....

In my 15 year odyssey with hypertension, it seems that Canadian physicians, at least, have sort of gone that way in terms of medication. The first was an ACE inhibitor, from which I had severe side effects, necessitating a change. The second was a beta blocker, which was effective for control for about a year and a half. An ARB was added in conjunction with a diuretic, but both were added together. Then, when that proved insufficient, a calcium channel blocker was added to the other three. While limiting salt has been recommended, I find that a little extra salt every once in a while doesn't raise my BP. I think my point is that, if salt were a main issue, they would have used HCT or a diuretic by itself to start, and that was not the case. In fact, the HCT was added in conjunction with the ARB, probably because the ARB can raise blood potassium a lot, and I think the diuretic is as much to control very high potassium as it is to lower sodium. Just my opinion, as a 15 year veteran of hypertension, starting around age 45.