Eating high amounts of salt is linked to a significantly higher risk of strokes and cardiovascular disease, states a paper published today in the British Medical Journal.
The study looked at the relationship between the level of habitual dietary salt intake and the occurrence of stroke and cardiovascular disease by reviewing 13 prospective studies from the UK, Japan, U.S., The Netherlands, Finland and China, including more than 170,000 participants, followed up for 3.5 to 19 years, who experienced nearly 11,000 vascular events.
The study provides unequivocal evidence of the direct link between high dietary salt intake and increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease. A 5 g lower daily salt intake would reduce stroke by 23 per cent and total cardiovascular disease by 17 per cent, thus averting 1.25 million fatal and non-fatal strokes, and almost 3 million vascular events worldwide each year.
The effect
The effect is greater, the larger the difference in salt intake and increases with time, according to a University of Warwick press release.
Professor Francesco Cappuccio, Head of the WHO Collaboration Centre at Warwick Medical School said: “We have seen reductions in the salt content of several food items, due to the collaboration between governments, public health bodies and sectors of the industry on a voluntary basis.
However, the progress towards the recommended targets has been slow. For population salt intake to approach the WHO targets within a reasonable time, a regulatory approach is necessary, in addition to health promotion campaigns, to reduce the burden of avoidable death. “Habitual salt intake in most adult populations around the world exceeds 10 g per day,” says Professor Pasquale Strazzullo, one of the senior authors," and the WHO recommends that daily intake should not exceed 5 grams.
Our study supports current recommendations to reduce substantially salt intake worldwide to avoid unnecessary strokes and other cardiovascular events."
