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Considerable controversy exists about relations among sodium intake, blood pressure (BP), and adverse cardiovascular events. Researchers explored this issue in an observational study of about 100,000 adults from a mix of 18 high- and low-income countries. Using fasting urinary sodium and potassium measurements, the researchers estimated daily sodium and potassium excretion — a surrogate for intake.
Key BP findings were:
Higher daily sodium excretion was associated with significantly higher systolic and diastolic BP; the association was limited to participants whose daily sodium excretion exceeded 3 g.
Higher daily potassium excretion was associated with significantly lower systolic BP — an inverse association.
Mean BP of participants with the h…