Slash the Salt to Reduce Stroke and Cardiovascular Risks

In that a high salt intake is associated with significantly increased risk of stroke and total cardiovascular disease, Pasquale Strazzullo, Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaboration Centre at Warwick Medical School (United Kingdom), and colleagues completed an analysis of 13 prospective prospective studies from the UK, Japan, USA, The Netherlands, Finland and China, involving more than 170,000 subjects, followed up for 3.5 to 19 years, to ascertain the relationship between the level of habitual dietary salt intake and the occurrence of stroke and cardiovascular disease.  The researchers found that a five-gram lower daily salt intake would reduce stroke by 23% and total cardiovascular disease by 17%, thus averting 1.25 million fatal and non-fatal strokes, and almost 3 million vascular events worldwide each year.  Further, the team determined that the effect is greater, the larger the difference in salt intake and increases with time.  The researchers urge that: “High salt intake is associated with significantly increased risk of stroke and total cardiovascular disease. These results support the role of a substantial population reduction in salt intake for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.”