Study casts doubt on high-salt diet risk

[flashl]

NEW YORK, May 16 (UPI) -- New York researchers say that contrary to long-held assumptions, high-salt diets may not increase the risk of death.

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University say they reached their conclusion after examining dietary intake among a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, using data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the federal government.

The data were compared against death records that had been collected by the government through the year 2000. The sample of approximately 8,700 represented those over age 30 at the time of the baseline survey -- 1988 to 1994 -- and were not on a special low-salt diet.

The researchers said they observed a significantly increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease associated with lower sodium diets.

The study, published in the online edition of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found that adjusting for known heart risk factors -- such as smoking, diabetes and blood pressure -- the one-fourth of the sample who reported consuming the lowest amount of sodium were found to be 80 percent more likely to die from cardiovascular disease compared to the one-fourth of the sample consuming the highest level of sodium.

UPI

[Eurobabe]

1. Too little salt can kill you too

your electrolytes get out of whack.

[Systematic Chaos]

3. I have read that humans require only 200 mg of sodium per day.

We instead average 6,000 - 10,000 mg per day.

I, personally, can't stand salt and don't add it to anything with the exception of adding Bragg's Liquid Aminos to stir fried veggies. I generally stay under 2,000 mg per day and still feel like that's too much.

[AndyTiedye]

5. How Much Salt You Need Depends On How Much You Sweat

Possibly the lowest-salt people were also getting less exercise than the others. Did they control for that?

[Systematic Chaos]

6. Some information to consider:

I believe Dr. McDougall is one of the most brilliant sources we have on the subject of nutrition. Feel free to disagree, but here is some good information on sodium guidelines and intake levels:

http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=44009&sid=8337076798313c9729f4034cd27ff524

[Crunchy Frog]

4. I doubt very much that any American could get too little salt in their diet.

[Eurobabe]

8. that is for sure, I was constantly thirsty

the entire time I was home last week in the US. The salt in the food there is very noticeable.

[aquart]

2. Yes!

Okay, this is crappy news for Mrs. Dash.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. This Was Found Previously

A large British study a few years ago found that the more salt you eat, the longer you live.

Too bad that docs aren't so fond of actual evidence - they much prefer guesses.

[RC]

9. Who financed this study? Morton Salt?

Added salt is in almost everything. If I get too much sodium, I swell up from water retention, get thirsty and if bad enough don't feel right.
Why is there so much salt in so much of our food? Because it is cheap. A few cents more for some spices and our prepared (i.e., canned/frozen) foods would taste better and this would not be a topic of discussion.
You want salt? Add it yourself at the dinner table. We are being inflected with excess salt just because it is a cheap flavor enhancer. It is just what people are used to.

[kickysnana]

10. My Grandmother's death was due to low salt in 1989

She was basically healthy except had severe osteoporosis. She heeded the research and ate a low salt diet. Eventually her ribcage started to collapse. The pressure on her heart and lungs started to take its' toll and her doctor prescribed a water pill and something for her heart to work more efficiently. She got even weaker and she called the doctor who upped the medicine. She collapsed about a week later. When she got to the emergency room she was resuscitated a couple times. Those efforts broke many bones and the damage to her body was great. The ER doctor said he had never seen anyone alive with sodium that low. After she was blind, deaf, bedridden and needed help to feed herself. She died 6 months later from despair.

A daughter-in-law's mother started down the same road but we were able to warn her and her doctor caught the declining sodium levels and she lived a normal life.

Prior to this people who were put on these strong heart medicines/water pills/BP meds were put in the hospital so they could be watched but statistics became the watchword and because this happened to only 1% of people they were expendable because this was much cheaper. But 1% means 1 out of 100 and that is one heck of a lot of people to be expendable.

I remember reading about relatives having to be at the bedside of loved ones in China because care was so poor. It was already happening here in 1989 and is pretty much complete now.