Many people have been reducing their salt intake under the impression that too much salt is bad for their health. Findings of a new study, however, suggest that the amount of salt that most people consume is just right for their cardiovascular health and that consuming less than 3 grams of salt per day could also have unwanted consequences.
For the study published in The New England Journal Medicine (NEJM) on Aug. 14, Salim Yusuf, from the Population Health Research Institute of the McMaster University in Ontario,Canada, and colleagues tracked 101,945 individuals from 17 countries for more than three years and found that individuals who consumed fewer than 3 grams of sodium per day had 27 percent increased risks for death or potentially fatal events such as heart attack and stroke during the study period compared with those whose salt intake was between 3 to 6 grams.
In 2010, the average sodium consumption worldwide was 3.95 grams per day but the consumption varies in different regions. The daily salt intake among Americans only average 3.6 grams per day albeit the recommended amount by the U.S. government is not more than 2.3 grams per day.
While the researchers found that consuming less than 3 grams of salt per day is associated with unwanted health conditions, it does not mean that people could consume as much salt as they can because too much salt intake is also found to have unwanted implications. Yusuf and colleagues found that risks of death and adverse events also increased in individuals who consume more than 6 grams of salt per day.
"An estimated sodium intake between 3 g per day and 6 g per day was associated with a lower risk of death and cardiovascular events than was either a higher or lower estimated level of intake," the researchers wrote.
Another study, which was also published in NEJM and was led by Dariush Mozaffarian, from the Tufts University, adds credence to the importance of regulating salt intake. By looking at 205 surveys of sodium intake in countries comprising nearly 75 percent of the global population and determining the effects of salt intake on blood pressure and the risks of heart disease, Mozaffarian and colleagues estimated that 1.65 million deaths from cardiovascular disease in 2010 is caused by salt intake of more than 2 grams per day.
"High sodium intake is known to increase blood pressure, a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases including heart disease and stroke," Mozaffarian said. "These 1.65 million deaths represent nearly one in 10 of all deaths from cardiovascular causes worldwide."
