Trend toward higher death in study participants who had high salt intake
TUESDAY, Jan. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A study of adults aged 71 to 80 indicates that daily consumption of 2,300 mg of salt didn’t increase deaths, cardiovascular disease, stroke, or heart failure over 10 years. The report was published online Jan. 19 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
For the study, the researchers looked at salt’s effects on 2,642 adults, aged 71 to 80, who filled out a food frequency questionnaire. During 10 years of follow-up, 881 participants died, 572 developed cardiovascular disease or had a stroke, and 398 developed heart failure, the researchers found.
When the investigators looked at deaths compared with salt consumption, they found that the death rate was lowest — 30.7 percent — for those who consumed 1,500 to 2,300 mg a day. Those who averaged 1,500 mg a day had a death rate of 33.8 percent. Among those whose salt intake was more than 2,300 mg a day, the death rate was 35.2 percent.
“The rate of salt intake in our study was modest,” lead researcher Andreas Kalogeropoulos, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., an assistant professor of cardiology at Emory University in Atlanta, told HealthDay. “The question isn’t whether you should have a teaspoon or two, but whether you should have a teaspoon daily or even less than that,” he said. The American Heart Association recommends less than 1,500 mg of salt a day, which is less than a teaspoon.
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