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Cardiovascular disease

Salt and cardiovascular risk

A report has suggested a J-shaped association between estimated sodium excretion and cardiovascular risk. However, because spot urinary sodium does not reflect daily salt intake, the results from this study do not change the strong evidence showing that a modest reduction in salt intake has major beneficial effects on health.

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Figure 1: Relative risk of CVD events in a meta-analysis of randomized salt-reduction trials with normotensive individuals and patients with hypertension combined.

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Correspondence to Feng J. He.

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He, F., MacGregor, G. Salt and cardiovascular risk. Nat Rev Nephrol 8, 134–136 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2011.220

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