HALF A TEASPOON LESS SALT A DAY COULD SAVE 100,000 LIVES, STUDY FINDS

While it’s impossible for researchers to predict exactly how many people could avoid a heart attack, stroke or death as a result of lower salt consumption, the findings provide an accurate estimate of the major effect sodium reduction could have on the population.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Health
Source & Credit: The Globe and Mail | January 21, 2010
By Carly Weeks for The Globe and Mail

Nearly 100,000 lives could be saved in the United States every year if people reduced their salt consumption by just half a teaspoon a day, comparable to the benefits of national efforts to reduce smoking, obesity and cholesterol levels, according to a new study.

Consuming half a teaspoon less of salt daily – the equivalent of 1,200 milligrams of sodium – could also prevent up to 120,000 new cases of coronary heart disease, 66,000 strokes and 99,000 heart attacks, according to the study, published by the New England Journal of Medicine online Wednesday.

The savings would also extend to the health-care system, reducing costs related to hypertension and other health problems by between $10-billion and $24-billion (U.S.) a year.

“The numbers are huge,” said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, lead author of the study, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco and co-director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at the San Francisco General Hospital.

Although the study focused on the U.S. population, it has implications for Canadians, who also consume dangerously high amounts of sodium. The recommend daily intake for adults up to age 50 is 1,500 mg, while the upper limit is 2,300 mg. But the average intake is about 3,100 mg, which many consider a conservative estimate, while in the U.S., it's about 3,400 mg.

“This again just highlights the increasing amount of evidence that we need to, as a society, reduce the amount of salt that's added to food,” said Norm Campbell, Canadian research chair in hypertension prevention and control. “That's really the issue at the end of the day.”

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