Compared with their usual diets, 72% of the participants had lower systolic blood pressure on the low-sodium diet, with an average drop of 6 mm Hg. Nearly 75% of participants had lower systolic blood pressure on the low-sodium diet than on the high-sodium diet, with an average drop of 7 mm Hg. The results appeared in JAMA on November 11, 2023. Blood pressures were averages of measurements taken over 24 hours during normal daily activities. Then the participants switched to the other diet for a week, and their blood pressures were measured again. The researchers measured participants’ blood pressures after a week. The diet provided an average of 500 mg of sodium per day. Those on the low-sodium diet were provided with a week’s worth of low-sodium meals, snacks, and beverages. Those on the high-sodium diet added 2,200 mg of sodium per day to their usual diets. The participants were randomly assigned to a high- or low-sodium diet for a week. Some were taking medication to control their high blood pressure. Participants with both normal and high blood pressures were enrolled between April 2021 and February 2023 in Chicago, Illinois and Birmingham, Alabama. Deepak Gupta at Vanderbilt University Medical Center studied the effect of dietary sodium on blood pressure in 213 people, ages 50-75 (65% women and 64% Black). So, it isn’t clear how much reducing sodium intake would affect people taking these medications.Īn NIH-funded research team led by Dr. Also, most studies of low-sodium diets have excluded people taking blood pressure-lowering medications. This makes it difficult to determine what counts as a healthy amount of sodium in someone’s diet. The sensitivity of blood pressure to sodium, however, varies from person to person. Blood pressure is considered high when systolic readings (the top number, the pressure when blood is pumped out of the heart) are consistently over 130 mm Hg or diastolic readings (the bottom number, between heartbeats when the heart is filling with blood) are 80 mm Hg or higher.Īlthough sodium is crucial to the human body, too much contributes to high blood pressure. Half of all Americans have high blood pressure, or hypertension. The study suggests that reducing salt in the diet could have health benefits for many people.
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