Ban the Salt and Save Your Heart

A new study on how salt affects the heart has just been released. The result shows that lowering the amount of salt consumed reduces the risk of heart problems.

It is already known that salt can have damaging effects on human health. For example eating too much salt can lead to higher blood pressure, which can lead to more serious heart conditions.

The new research set out to find out exactly why salt causes damage to the human cardiovascular system. The Harvard Medical School carried out the study in the United States.

The findings of the study saw that if a person reduced their salt intake by a large amount, it significantly lowered their risk of heart problems. The risk could decrease by as much as 25 percent. In turn the reduction in salt intake also lowered a persons chances of dying from a heart related condition by as much as 20 percent.

The results of the study have put pressure on the food industry to lower the amount of salt that is put into food. This may not be as easy as one would think. Salt is a huge part of our diet and can be found in many of our favourite snacks and meals. Did you that one small bag of potato chips could account for half of the maximum daily salt intake recommendation?

Participants in the Harvard Medical School Study were asked to greatly reduce the amount of their daily salt intake. The reduction amount was set a one third. This meant that average participant, who has been consuming 9 grams of salt eat day, had to reduce their intake to only 6 grams of salt per day.

Once the participants reduced their intake there were followed for 15 years. Heart attack risk was reduced by 25 percent and mortality risk was reduced by 20 percent.

Salt producers are obviously not quick to step up and support the findings of this new study. Many producers claim that the results are limited because they used participants that had high blood pressure and did not study those with normal blood pressure.

Speaking in support of the study was Professor Graham MacGregor, a cardiovascular consultant that St. George's hospital in London and the head of Consensus Action Group on Salt. MacGregor said, "It shows that if people reduced their salt intake it will reduce the number of people suffering from heart attacks, strokes and heart failure. We did not have that type of evidence before.

The US researchers of the study just published it on the website of the British Medical Journal. Two trials of the salt test were carried out during the study. The first one used only 744 participants and the second one use a much larger number of 2,382 participants.

The maximum recommend daily intake of salt for people over the age of 11 is 6 grams. Children between the ages of 7 and 10 should not consume more that 5 grams a day. Children aged 4 to 6, 3 grams a day and children aged 1 to 3 should have no more than 2 grams a day.

Sources
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/health/study+salt+boosts+heart+disease/451752
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6570933.stm
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23393343-details/Too%20much%20salt%20DOES%20increase%20risk%20of%20heart%20attack/article.do