November 16, 1995
Web posted at: 7 p.m. EST
From Correspondent Eugenia Halsey
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- A new study finds that losing 10 pounds and cutting salt intake lowers the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people whose blood pressure is slightly above normal. But health experts are still debating the long-term benefits of salt restriction.
For years, the government has urged Americans to reduce the salt in their diets to prevent high blood pressure. But scientists still disagree about the dangers of salt.
One recent study of patients with high blood pressure showed that eating less salt hurt rather than helped. Researchers followed 3,000 people with high blood pressure for eight years. All of the subjects were taking medication to control the condition. Dr. Michael Alderman of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine said the researchers found those who ate the least salt had the most heart attacks.
That would seem to shake up the conventional wisdom about salt. But a government researcher is not ready to do away with the conventional wisdom so quickly. Dr. Jeffrey Cutler of the National Institutes of Health has criticized the study, saying the inclusion of smokers could have exaggerated the results. He warns against drawing conclusions from just one study, because several other studies have shown cutting salt in the diet can lower blood pressure. Cutler estimates that in the middle aged population alone, a drop of a couple of millimeters of systolic blood pressure could reduce the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease by about 50,000.
Research released at this week's meeting of the American Heart Association found more evidence that eating less salt reduces blood pressure by an average of 40 percent over six months. But the patients had a hard time sticking to a low-salt diet over the long haul.
The researchers say food companies could help by reducing sodium in their products. The salt shaker contributes only 20 percent of the sodium in people's diets. Most of the salt people consume is already in their food, said Dr. Paul Whelton of Johns Hopkins University. (72K AIFF sound or 72K WAV sound)
But the past president of the American Heart Association, Dr. Suzanne Oparil of the University of Alabama-Birmingham, said her personal view is that the government may have been too quick to recommend that everyone cut back. "Salt restriction as a solitary recommendation for the population for the prevention or the treatment of hypertension is not a powerful weapon and is probably not worth the trouble," she said. And she added that losing weight may do a lot more to reduce the chances of heart disease. Still, Oparil said patients should consult their doctors, and if they are already restricting their salt intake, it's reasonable to go on doing that until there's more evidence one way or another.
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