People who followed a low-salt diet for just a week experienced a reduction in systolic blood pressure of about 6 mm Hg, in a new study.
The CARDIA-SSBP trial involved 213 individuals aged 50-75 years, including those with and those without hypertension, and showed that the decline in blood pressure brought about by a low-salt diet was independent of hypertension status and antihypertensive medication use. It was also generally consistent across subgroups and did not result in excess adverse events.
"The blood pressure reduction we see here is meaningful, and comparable to that produced by one antihypertensive medication," lead investigator, Deepak Gupta, MD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, told theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.
Gupta presented the CARDIA-SSBP study on November 11 at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2023, held in Philadelphia. The study was also published online on November 11 in JAMA. The exact menus used in the study are available in a supplement to the JAMA paper.
"In order to live a healthy lifestyle, understanding what we eat has important health effects. Raised blood pressure contributes to 1 out of every 8 deaths worldwide," Gupta noted. "If people want to lower their blood pressure, attention to dietary sodium is one part of that.
