Salt and cardiovascular disease

doi:10.1136/bmj.39175.364954.BE

BMJ 2007;334:859-860 (28 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39175.364954.BE

Editorials

Salt and cardiovascular disease

Reducing intake improves cardiovascular outcomes but few countrieshave effective policies

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

Blood pressure is the most powerful predictor of stroke andother cardiovascular events. The importance of salt (sodiumchloride) intake in determining blood pressure and the incidenceof hypertension is well established. Furthermore, randomisedcontrolled clinical trials of moderate reductions in salt intakeshow a dose dependent cause-effect relation and lack of a thresholdeffect within usual levels of salt intake in populations worldwide.¹The effect is independent of age, sex, ethnic origin, baselineblood pressure, and body mass.

Prospective studies,² ³ ⁴ ⁵ with one exception,⁶ also indicatethat higher salt intake predicts the incidence of cardiovascularevents. While widespread support exists for reducing salt intaketo prevent cardiovascular disease, the lack of large and longrandomised trials on the effects of salt reduction on clinicaloutcomes has encouraged some people to argue against a policyof salt reduction in populations.⁶

In this week's BMJ, Cook and colleagues⁷ report the long . . . [Full text of this article]

Francesco P Cappuccio, chair of cardiovascular medicine and epidemiology

Warwick Medical School, Coventry

cvme@warwick.ac.uk

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