New research shows that cutting back on salt can significantly lower your blood pressure, whether you have hypertension or are on medication. The study, which included 213 participants from diverse backgrounds, found that a low-salt diet lowered systolic blood pressure by an average of 7 mmHg. These results apply to a wide range of individuals and suggest that salt restriction is as effective as common hypertension medications in controlling blood pressure.
Research has shown that a low-salt diet significantly lowers blood pressure and is beneficial for people with and without high blood pressure, and even for people taking blood pressure medications.
- Reducing sodium intake significantly lowered blood pressure in most people, even those who were already taking blood pressure medications.
- The findings suggest that reducing sodium intake may have health benefits for a wide range of people.
Half of Americans have high blood pressure. If the systolic reading (the upper number, the pressure at which blood is pumped out of the heart) is consistently above 130 mm Hg, or the diastolic reading (the lower number, the pressure when the heart is filling with blood) Blood pressure is considered high if the pressure between heartbeats) exceeds 80 mm Hg. mmHg or higher.
Role of sodium in hypertension
Sodium is essential for the human body, but too much sodium can cause high blood pressure. However, blood pressure sensitivity to sodium varies from person to person. This makes it difficult to determine what counts as a healthy amount of sodium in someone’s diet. Also, most studies on low-salt diets exclude people who take blood pressure-lowering medications. Therefore, it is unclear how much salt reduction affects people taking these drugs.
Research on dietary sodium and blood pressure
An NIH-funded research team led by Dr. Deepak Gupta of Vanderbilt University Medical Center studied the effects of dietary sodium on blood pressure in 213 people (65% female, 64% black) between the ages of 50 and 75. Both normotensive and hypertensive participants were enrolled from April 2021 to February 2023 in Chicago, Illinois, and Birmingham, Alabama. Some were taking medication to control high blood pressure.
Participants were randomly assigned to either a high-sodium diet or a low-sodium diet for one week. Those on a high-sodium diet added 2,200 mg of sodium per day to their regular diet. Those on a low-salt diet were provided with a week’s worth of low-sodium meals, snacks, and drinks. This diet provided an average of 500 mg of sodium per day.
The researchers measured the participants’ blood pressure a week later. The participant was then switched to another diet for one week and her blood pressure was measured again. Blood pressure was the average value she measured over a 24-hour period during normal daily activities. The results were: Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association November 11, 2023.
Important discoveries and implications
Almost 75% of participants had lower systolic blood pressure on the low-sodium diet than on the high-sodium diet, with an average decrease of 7 mmHg. Compared to a regular diet, the low-sodium diet lowered systolic blood pressure in 72% of participants, with an average drop of 6 mmHg. The effect of dietary sodium did not depend on whether a person had high blood pressure in the first place. It was also unaffected by whether people were taking medication for high blood pressure.
This reduction in blood pressure can have significant health benefits. This finding supports reducing sodium in the diet to lower blood pressure. The effects of a low-salt diet were similar to those of common first-line drugs for hypertension. The results also suggest that reducing salt intake may help a wide range of people, including those already taking blood pressure-lowering drugs.
“Just as any physical activity is better than none for most people, reducing salt from your current normal diet is likely to be better than none,” says Gupta. To tell.
For more information about this study, see New study reveals universal blood pressure-lowering strategy.
Reference: “Effects of dietary sodium on blood pressure: a cross-over study”, Deepak K. Gupta, Cora E. Lewis, Krista A. Varady, Yan Ru Su, Meena S. Madhur, Daniel T. Lackland, Jared P. Reis , Thomas J. Wang, Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, Norina B. Allen, November 11, 2023, Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
DOI: 10.1001/jama.2023.23651
Funding: NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences (NCATS). American Heart Association.
Source: scitechdaily.com
