I thought I'd do something a little different today. I came across an article in the Nutrition Action Health Letter and thought it was worth sharing. I will cover all of this in more detail below, but the take away point is: Too much salt in your diet is harmful to more than just your blood pressure. It affects all the major systems and organs negatively when consumed in large quantities. Reducing your salt intake can drastically improve your overall health.
Below is just the quick overview of the information in the article. The Nutrition Action Health Letter website is: http://www.cspinet.org/nah/index.htm
Shaving Salt, Saving Lives.
Nutrition Action Health Letter April 2010
All of the following information comes from the listed article. This is just a review of the major highlights and take home points from the article.
“In 2005, high blood pressure was responsible for one in six deaths in the USA. That’s because hypertension (high blood pressure) boosts your risk of dying of a heart attack or stroke more than smoking, high cholesterol, obesity, or any other risk factor.”
The article talks about how salt directly affects blood pressure (raises it) and how eliminating salt from your diet is beneficial on my fronts.
-- Less salt means lower blood pressure and less risk of cardiovascular (heart/lungs) disease (among other diseases)
-- Blood pressure rises with age regardless of salt intake. High salt intake only adds to the problem.
-- Risk of disease rises before your blood pressure is diagnosed as “high” by a doctor
-- High blood pressure harms the heart by making it harder to pump out sufficient blood, the brain with some evidence linking it to dementia, and kidneys. Left ventricular hypertrophy can occur. This is where the wall of the heart is thickened because it must work harder to pump blood out into a higher pressure system. This is a significant contributing factor to congestive heart failure. I spoke about stiff arteries in an earlier blog, research suggests that more salt in your diet=stiffer arteries (further contributing to left ventricular hypertrophy among other problems). High blood pressure damages the kidneys and salt may make it worse. High salt diets increase the excretion of calcium (you pee out more calcium) which may lead to increased risk of osteoporosis.
-- “42 million Americans have uncontrolled hypertension.” The range varies, but about 28% of people with hypertension don’t even know it. The article states that eating less salt would make blood pressure medications more effective. Through research they also state that “High dietary salt ingestion is an important cause of resistant hypertension.” (the kind that doesn’t respond well to medications)
-- The article suggests that you assume you are sensitive to salt. Because most people will have hypertension at one time or another, it is safe to control your salt intake.
-- There are more things in addition to cutting back on salt that you can do to reduce your blood pressure. It is suggested that you get 4,700 mg of potassium per day. Eating a DASH diet (lots of fruits, veggies, low fat dairy). Exercising daily is always a great way (cardio is better, but resistance exercise is good as well).
-- The article also brings up health care costs. By cutting salt intake and reducing heart problems, stroke, etc., we will save significant amounts of money and reduce the strain on our health care system.
-- The article suggests reducing take-out or eating out, reducing the amount of white flour/white bread/white pasta you eat and increasing whole grains, reducing any prepared frozen dishes (like Bertolli), and getting more exercise.
No comments:
Post a Comment