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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Balance Salt and Potassium Intake To Cut Early Death Risk! Salt is bad for the health! This is really not a new discovery. In fact, there is general consensus among health experts that consuming too much salt would cause the blood pressure to rise, which could subsequently lead to heart disease, stroke, and even early death. People are just eating too much salt. For instance, the intake of salt for Americans has been increasing since 1970s, with about 90 percent of Americans consuming more than the recommended daily intake. Most of the salt consumed is not in the salt shaker but is in the foods, especially processed and restaurant foods that people buy and order from restaurants. It seems that cutting salt intake is inevitable and health experts around the world have urged this, too. But, can cutting salt intake alone help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and early death? On July 5, 2011, A British study suggested that reducing salt intake by half is not enough to lower the long-term risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Researchers from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Exeter analyzed data from 7 surveys completed by a total of 6,500 adults who were asked to trim their salt intake by 50 percent and were monitored for the next several years.
The findings indicated that advice and encouragement did help cut the salt intake and the blood pressure of patients did drop a little but there was no clear reduction in their mortality rate or risk of cardiovascular risk. Researchers argued that people can cut consumption in the short term but it is very hard for them to keep the habit over longer period. Instead of just telling people to reduce salt intake, health experts should reinforce that with population-based strategies, for example, implementing low-salt diets at schools, government’s cafeterias and hospitals. While salt can help control blood pressure, it needs to work with potassium to balance bodily fluids. Potassium often counteracts the effects of salt in the diet. Sodium can increase one’s blood pressure but potassium can reduce it. If sodium retains water, potassium helps get rid of it. However, equilibrium can be disturbed when people consume highly processed foods, which can raise the sodium levels and reduce potassium content. Therefore, focusing on the balance between the two is important. On July 11, 2011, a team of researchers from Center for Disease Control (CDC) in United States reported in journal ‘Archives of Internal Medicine’ that eating too much salt could raise the risk of early death. Their study specifically focused on growing research that shows a diet high in salt and low in potassium is especially risky. Aiming to examine the long-term effects of sodium and potassium intake, researchers carried out a 15-year study on more than 12,000 people. At the end of the study, it was found that 2,270 participants had died, 825 of these deaths were from heart disease and 433 were from blood clots and strokes. People who had a high salt and low potassium intake were found to be most at risk. They had a 50 percent increased risk of death from any cause and about twice the risk of death, or a 200 percent increase from getting a heart attack. Researchers argued that their study was one of the best yet to examine the long-term effects of consuming too much salt, and it was consistent with what have been known about salt intake. It was not surprised that there were oppositions from the industry, claiming that the CDC’s study that linked salt intake to heart disease was statistically insignificance, though they agreed the link between low potassium and mortality was significant. Since higher potassium might be better, people should strive to decrease sodium intake and increase potassium intake. They can raise the levels of potassium in their diet by adding more servings of fresh fruits and vegetables like spinach, grapes, carrots, sweet potatoes and low fat milk and yogurt.
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