Lower your salt intake - lower your blood pressure
We all know that eating too much salt is not good for us, but how much do we have to reduce to make an impact? According to a new study - not very much at all!
Eighty patients with untreated mild to moderate hypertension were randomised to either start a ‘no added salt’ diet or continue with their normal diet.
24 hour holter monitoring and urinary sodium excretion measurement were carried out six weeks after the start of the diet.
Although sodium excretion dropped significantly in the ‘no salt added’ group of patients – compared to the control group - only 36% of them reached the pre-treatment goal of 24 hour sodium excretion of 100mEq/l.
But mean BP significantly dropped during the day by 12.1/6.8 and at night by 11.1/5.9mmHg.
