Dietary salt intake and blood pressure
R. A. Holden, A. M. Ostfeld, D. H. Freeman Jr, K. G. Hellenbrand and D. A. D'Atri
With an index for dietary salt use designed to provide a semiquantitative
estimate of salt intake, we have found that in a sample representative of
the 2.1 million adults in Connecticut, the mean BP of those at the 90th
percentile or higher of salt intake differs by a quantitatively
insignificant amount from the mean BP of those at the tenth percentile or
lower of salt intake. When we examined the obese (body mass index, 90th
percentile or higher) separately, similar results were obtained. These
findings indicate that it is unlikely dietary salt intake has a clinically
significant effect on BP in the majority of individuals in a large defined
population, but do not exclude the possibility of a clinically significant
effect in a small subgroup of salt-sensitive individuals.
