Salt Increases Risk of Stroke and Heart Disease

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- If you think shaking some salt onto your dinner plate won't hurt you, think again. A recent study suggests consuming high amounts of salt significantly raises the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease.

The research involved 13 prospective studies and 170, 000 participants worldwide. Researchers compared a person's dietary salt intake to the occurrence of stroke and cardiovascular disease. They found a direct link between high salt intake and high risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease.

The World Health Organization recommends daily salt intake should not exceed 5 grams, but according to study author Professor Pasquale Strazzullo of the University of Naples, Italy, most adults around the world eat twice that amount.

Researchers say reducing daily salt intake by 5 grams, would also reduce your stroke risk by 23 percent, and total cardiovascular disease risks by 17 percent, which would prevent 1.25 million fatal and non-fatal strokes and 3 million vascular events each year.

"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, disability and associated costs to individuals and society caused by unacceptable high levels of salt in our diet," Francesco Cappuccio, professor and Head of World Health Organization Collaboration Centre at Warwick Medical School in the United Kingdom, was quoted as saying.

SOURCE: British Medical Journal, November 25, 2009

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