Moderate Salt Reduction Reduces Blood Pressure But Not Risk Of Dying

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Reducing daily salt intake by a moderate amount reduces blood pressure but not people's chances of dying or getting cardiovascular disease, said UK researchers who systematically reviewed evidence available from published trials. Trials involving much larger groups cutting their salt intake by more than a moderate amount could tell a different story, they noted.

"We believe that we didn't see big benefits in this study because the people in the trials we analyzed only reduced their salt intake by a moderate amount, so the effect on blood pressure and heart disease was not large," lead author Professor Rod Taylor who works at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Exeter, told the press.

Taylor and colleagues wrote about their findings in the latest issue of the The Cochrane Library.

An earlier Cochrane review concluded in 2004 there wasn't sufficient evidence to say what effect reducing salt intake had on mortality or cardiovascular events, so Taylor and colleagues set out to find more recent studies to pool data from. They found seven studies covering a total of 6,489 participants.

When they analyzed the pooled data they found evidence that moderate reductions in salt intake reduces blood pressure:

"Intensive support and encouragement to reduce salt intake did lead to a reduction in salt eaten and a small reduction in blood pressure after more than six months," said Taylor.

But what they wanted to see was evidence that this change in diet also reduced people's risk of dying or having cardiovascualr disease, he explained. But they did not find this.

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