Kristin Wartman: Change in Season: Why Salt Doesn't Deserve Its Bad Rap

For something that's so often mixed with anti-caking agents, salt takes a lot of lumps in the American imagination. Like fat, people tend to think of it as an unnecessary additive -- something to be avoided by seeking out processed foods that are "free" of it. But also like fat, salt is an essential component of the human diet -- one that has been transformed into unhealthy forms by the food industry.

Historically, though, salt was prized. Its reputation can be found in phrases like, "Worth one's salt," meaning, "Worth one's pay," since people were often paid in salt and the word itself is derived from the Latin salarium, or salary.

Those days are long over. Doctors and dietitians, along with the USDA dietary guidelines, recommend eating a diet low in sodium to prevent high blood pressure, risk of cardiovascular disease, and stroke; and doctors have been putting their patients on low-salt diets since the 1970s. But a new study, published in the May 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that low-salt diets actually increase the risk of death from heart attack and stroke -- and in fact don't prevent high blood pressure.

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How to Be Active for Health << Staying Active and Eating Healthy << womenshealth.gov

You have probably heard by now that physical activity is good for you. Well, the news in favor of regular physical activity keeps coming in! The new 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans state that an active lifestyle can lower your risk of early death from a variety of causes. There is strong evidence that regular physical activity can also lower your risk of:

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• High blood pressure
• Unhealthy cholesterol levels
• Type 2 diabetes
• Metabolic syndrome
• Colon cancer
• Breast cancer
• Falls
• Depression

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Lipitor Tied To Diabetes Risk, More Evidence Shows

People on a high-dose regimen of the cholesterol drug Lipitor may have a slightly increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes -- particularly if they have several of the classic diabetes risk factors, a study published Monday finds.

A number of studies have linked Lipitor (known generically as atorvastatin) and other cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to a small increase in users' risk of diabetes.

This latest study, based on data from three large clinical trials, strengthens evidence of a connection.

But it also suggests that the risk may largely exist among people who also have the well-known risk factors for type 2 diabetes -- including excess weight, high blood sugar, elevated triglycerides (a type of blood fat) and high blood pressure.

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Study: Global obesity rates double since 1980 - USATODAY.com

Obesity rates worldwide have doubled in the last three decades even as blood pressure and cholesterol levels have dropped, according to three new studies.

People in Pacific Island nations like American Samoa are the heaviest, one of the studies shows. Among developed countries, Americans are the fattest and the Japanese are the slimmest.

"Being obese is no longer just a Western problem," said Majid Ezzati, a professor of public health at Imperial College London, one of the study's authors.

In 1980, about 5% of men and 8% of women worldwide were obese. By 2008, the rates were nearly 10% for men and 14% for women.

That means 205 million men and 297 million women weighed in as obese. Another 1.5 billion adults were overweight, according to the obesity study.

Though richer countries did a better job of keeping blood pressure and cholesterol levels under control, researchers said people nearly everywhere are piling on the pounds, except in a few places including central Africa and South Asia. The studies were published Friday in the medical journal, Lancet.

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CDC: U.S. Healthcare System Can Do Better in Treating CVD | All Sites Nursing News

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites issues with the U.S. healthcare system as part of the reason for the extent of cardiovascular disease in the country.

In a report released Tuesday, the CDC said two-thirds of adults with high cholesterol and half with hypertension do not receive effective treatment.

"Although we're making some progress, the United States is failing to prevent the leading cause of death — cardiovascular disease — despite the existence of low-cost, highly effective treatments," said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH.

"We need to do a better job improving care and supporting patients to prevent avoidable illness, disability and death."

For many people, according to the CDC, merely having healthcare coverage is not sufficient.

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Medical News: Cut Daily Salt Intake to 1,500 Mg, AHA Says - in Cardiovascular, Hypertension from MedPage Today

Daily intake of salt should be limited to 1,500 mg for all Americans, according to an advisory statement from the American Heart Association (AHA).

"The 2020 goal of the American Heart Association is to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20% while continuing to reduce deaths from [cardiovascular disease] and stroke by 20%," Lawrence J. Appel, MD, of Johns Hopkins, and colleagues wrote online in Circulation.

Two key components of improving cardiovascular health are population-wide lowering of blood pressure below 120/80 and reducing sodium chloride intake below 1,500 mg per day, observed AHA president Appel.

Action Points  --->

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• Note that the American Heart Association states that two of the key metrics for ideal cardiovascular health are a blood pressure of 120/80 mm Hg and sodium consumption of 1500 mg/day.
  

Note further that in this advisory, the AHA reviews the evidence for the benefits of reduced sodium intake and issues a call to action.

The evidence linking salt intake with blood pressure -- and the major adverse outcomes of heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease -- is "impressive," wrote the authors of the advisory.

That evidence includes more than 50 trials assessing the blood pressure effects of salt, as well as a meta-analysis showing that cutting salt intake by about 1,800 mg per day lowered blood pressure by 5 mm Hg systolic and 2.7 mm Hg diastolic.

Various studies also have compared the benefits and outcomes of a number of different sodium reduction goals. Notably, reducing salt consumption also can help prevent the blood pressure increases that come with age, ultimately affecting 90% of adults.

via medpagetoday.com

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How salt is associated with stroke and heart disease risk-KevinMD.com

Sodium intake has a direct and independent impact on the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease, according to a meta-analysis published online ahead of print in the British Medical Journal.

According to the American Heart Association, you can help patients reduce salt intake by recommending that they:

• Compare the sodium content of similar products (e.g., different brands of tomato sauce) and choose products with less salt

• Choose versions of processed foods, including cereals and baked goods, that are reduced in salt

• Limit condiments (e.g., soy sauce, ketchup).

Researchers out of the University of Naples conducted a meta-analysis of 19 independent cohort samples taken from 13 studies exploring the relationship between salt intake and cardiovascular disease. The cohorts comprised 177,025 participants who were followed-up for 3.5 to 19 years and who experienced over 11,000 vascular events.

Higher salt intake was associated with a greater risk of stroke, with a pooled relative risk (RR) of 1.23, as well as a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, with a pooled RR of 1.14. The observed associations increased with larger differences in sodium intake and a longer duration of follow-up. The authors estimate that reducing daily salt intake by as little as 5 g at the population level could avert 1.25 million deaths from stroke and nearly three million deaths from cardiovascular disease annually.

Today’s research provides strong evidence for worldwide efforts to reduce sodium intake.

via kevinmd.com

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