Washington: Eating less salt in foods is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, heart failure and ischemic heart disease, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Even in people who consume diets similar to DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), behavioral treatments to reduce salt consumption may enhance heart health. An important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, is demonstrated to be correlated with high sodium intake. Due to the lack of useful techniques for determining long-term dietary sodium intake, epidemiological studies in this regard have produced conflicting results. According to recent research, a person’s personal sodium intake over time can be estimated by how often they salt their food.
Lu Qi, MD, PhD, said, “Overall, we found that people who didn’t add even a little extra salt to their diets often had a much lower risk of heart disease events, regardless of lifestyle factors and prediabetes.” Whatever may be the disease present.” , HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and Professor in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans. “We also found that the risk of heart disease was lowest when patients combined the DASH diet with a low frequency of salt addition. This is as meaningful as reducing excess salt in the diet, eliminating salt altogether. is an incredibly modifiable risk factor that we can hopefully encourage our patients to make without sacrificing much.”
In the current investigation, 176,570 participants from the UK Biobank were examined to see whether frequency of consumption of salty foods was associated with an increased risk of incident heart disease. The DASH diet and frequency of salty foods were also examined in relation to heart disease risk. To collect information about how often people add salt to their food – other than salt used in cooking – the study used a baseline questionnaire. Along with being asked whether they had changed their diet significantly over the past five years, participants also had to complete one to five rounds of 24-hour dietary recalls over a three-year period. The DASH-style diet was designed to avoid high blood pressure by reducing intake of red and processed meats and emphasizing vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, nuts and legumes. Although a recent clinical trial indicated that the DASH diet combined with sodium reduction was more beneficial for some cardiac biomarkers, including cardiovascular damage, stress, and inflammation, it has been shown that the DASH diet may not be associated with cardiovascular disease risk. beneficial in reducing Seven foods and nutrients either highlighted or reduced in the DASH-style diet were used to create a modified DASH score that did not take sodium consumption into account.
Data on episodes of cardiovascular disease were collected through medical history, information on hospitalization, a questionnaire, and information from death registers. Overall, participants who added less salt to their diets were more likely to be white, have a lower body mass index, drink moderate amounts of alcohol, were less likely to smoke now, and be more physically active. In addition, they were more likely to have chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure, but less likely to have cancer. Additionally, compared to those who added salt to their meals more often, these participants were more likely to follow a DASH-style diet and consume more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, whole grains, and low-fat foods. More likely, but less sugar-sweetened beverages, or red/processed meat.
The researchers found that participants with lower socioeconomic status and who were current smokers had a greater association between a salty diet and the likelihood of developing heart disease. A lower risk of cardiovascular disease events was correlated with a higher modified DASH diet score. Sarah Ghonim, MD, a gastroenterology fellow at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said in a related editorial comment that the study is encouraging, builds on prior findings, and references the potential impact of long-term salt preferences on overall cardiovascular risk. “A major limitation of the study is the low self-reported frequency of adding salt to foods and the enrollment of participants only from the UK, which limits generalizability to other populations with different eating behaviours,” said Ghonim. “The findings of the current study are encouraging and set to expand our understanding of behavioral interventions related to salt on cardiovascular health.”