Salt may affect more than blood pressure: study
April 19, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consuming less salt can not only lower blood pressure, but may reduce the risk of heart disease overall, researchers reported on Thursday.

They found that people with borderline-high blood pressure who reduced their sodium intake by 25 to 35 percent lowered their risk of total cardiovascular disease by 25 percent. And this lower risk lasted for 10 to 15 years.

Dr. Nancy Cook and colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston studied more than 3,000 people who took part in a study of a low-salt diet and its effects on high blood pressure.

Those who were assigned to a low-salt diet had a lower risk of all various kinds of cardiovascular disease even 10 to 15 years later, they report in the online version of the British Medical Journal. the rest