U.S.- wide salt reduction could prevent deaths : study

The United States could prevent up to half a million deaths over the next decade if Americans cut their salt intake to within national guidelines, according to a new study.

That finding - which comes the week New York City announced success toward its goals of cutting salt levels by one-quarter by 2014 - is based on computer simulations using data from various studies on the effects of extra sodium on blood pressure and heart risks.

The Institute of Medicine recommends most healthy people get 1,500 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day, with an upper limit of 2,300 mg. But the average American eats more like 3,600 mg each day, largely through processed food.

"Reducing sodium intake is important for everyone, not just a small subset of people who are salt sensitive," said Pamela Coxson, the study's lead author from the University of California, San Francisco.

Although the health effects of a salt cutback may be small for the average person, she said, the results show they add up when projected across millions of Americans.

Still, one blood pressure researcher not involved in the new study said the models don't reflect the full picture of health consequences tied to too little or too much salt.

Too much sodium can raise a person's risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and other vascular diseases, and government estimates show 90 percent of Americans exceed their recommended daily allotment.

Now, new research shows that by reducing sodium intake to recommended levels or beyond could prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths.

"No matter how we look at it, the story is the same - there will be huge benefits in reducing sodium," study author Dr. Pam Coxson, mathematician UC San Francisco who performed one of three analyses included in the study, told UCSF News.

Americans on average consume about 3,600 milligrams of sodium each day, mostly from table salt (or sodium chloride), which is found primarily in processed foods. The top six sources of sodium in the American diet according to the American Heart Association, or "The Salty Six" are bread and rolls, cold cuts and cured meats, pizza, poultry, soup and sandwiches. The government recommends a limit of 2,300 milligrams per day of sodium and 1,500 milligrams for those 51 and older while the AHA recommends 1,500 milligrams each day.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that excess sodium is one of the factors that can raise the risk for heart disease. For the month of February, National Heart Month, the CDC offers 28 tips for a healthier heart.

Coxson and her colleagues ran three salt-reduction scenarios through models that predicted how a lower-sodium diet would impact a person's risk of having high blood pressure or dying of cardiovascular disease.

The most realistic scenario was a gradual decline in Americans' average sodium intake over ten years to about 2,200 mg per day. That goal would be "optimistic but potentially achievable," the researchers wrote in the journal Hypertension.