The good news has been: my blood pressure is generally quite good, despite my love of salt. Mmmmmm, salt, how I do love thee, sprinkled copiously over fries (not that I eat a lot of those) and popcorn and upon salty chips of diverse types! Though salt is linked with hypertension, that hasn’t been a problem for me to date.
The bad news is … salt = death. According to the latest science, at least.
Scientists have offered the first concrete evidence that a high sodium diet is linked to increased heart attacks, stroke and death in research published today.
A salty diet has long been linked to increased blood pressure, but despite connections between higher blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases, there has so far been no conclusive evidence that it causes people to die earlier.
A 15-year study of people’s salt intake and health, published in the British Medical Journal, revealed that those who ate less salty food were found to have a 25% lower risk of cardiac arrest or stroke and a 20% lower risk of premature death.
The good news is: it all appears to be blood pressure related. That is, salt leads to high blood pressure. High blood pressure increases risk of heart attack or stroke. No high blood pressure = reduced death threat.
Researchers followed up participants from two trials carried out in the nineties to analyse the effect that reducing salt in the diet had on blood pressure.
All the participants had raised blood pressure and were therefore at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease. 744 people participated in the first trial of hypertension prevention, completed in 1990, and 2,382 in the second, which ended in 1995.
In both, participants reduced their sodium intake by approximately 25% to 35% alongside a group who did not cut back their intake. By 1995, those who decreased their salt intake were significantly less like to have developed heart disease or a stroke or have died.
Ellen Mason, of the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study offers further observational evidence of strokes and heart attacks being linked to high salt intake.
“Salt intake amongst many adults and children in Britain is way too high. Salt can cause high blood pressure – which is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease – so we’ve all got to become detectives on the trail of this hidden killer.
Since salt <> hypertension (for me (so far)), salt <> death. Yay!
Pass the popcorn …