BMJ  2007;334 (28 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39197.425683.3A

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Salty story

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Salt is bad for your blood pressure. We've known that for a long time, from both associational studies and randomized trials. People and populations with high salt intake have more hypertension and strokes. If you lower patients' salt intake in research trials, their blood pressure goes down. But what about morbidity and mortality? Stands to reason that they would go down too, but until now it hasn't been shown clearly.

Nancy Cook and colleagues followed up patients from two large American hypertension prevention trials of patients with high normal blood pressure (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39147.604896.55). In both trials, the original interventions—weight loss, counseling to decrease dietary sodium, or both—led to decreased blood pressure compared to controls. Now, 10-15 years after the trials concluded, the investigators report cardiac morbidity and mortality data for more than 75% of the patients.

After adjustment for baseline characteristics, a 25% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular . . . [Full text of this article]

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