SALT ER BRA... Ny Studie mener dette!

Does Cutting Out Salt Really Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease?

May 4, 2011
Robert Rister

Salt Does Not Cause Cardiovascular Disease - Sergio59
For nearly 40 years doctors have been telling us to reduce sodium consumption to protect our hearts. But a new study reports unexpected results.

At some point in their adult lives, almost 80 per cent of all North Americans and similar numbers of Australians, New Zealanders, and Europeans will be diagnosed with high blood pressure. Along with placing patients on medication, most doctors will tell hypertensives they must reduce their consumption of sodium to protect their hearts.

After all, most of the early medications for high blood pressure worked by removing sodium from the bloodstream by increasing urination. Newer medications work on different principles, but doctors still tell us to avoid salt. The problem is, this very common advice may be the exact opposite of what will help.

Raising Blood Pressure without Increasing Risk of Heart Disease

Publishing their findings in the May 4, 2011 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, European researchers report that salt consumption definitely raises blood pressure, but apparently does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Medical researchers all over Europe participating in the European Genes in Hypertension Project recruited nearly 3,700 volunteers to investigate the role of dietary sodium in heart disease. They took urine samples from each volunteer to measure for sodium excretion. The more sodium in the sample, the reasoning is, the more sodium the study participant consumed.

The researchers divided the study subjects into three groups, one with the lowest consumption of salt and the lowest amount of sodium in the urine, one with the highest consumption of salt and the highest sodium in the urine, and the third group with intermediate levels of both. They tracked the health of the 3,700 participants for nearly 8 years.

The researchers observed that:

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•There were 10 deaths from heart attack and stroke among the approximately 1,200 participants who consumed the most salt.
•There were 24 deaths from heart attack and stroke among the approximately 1,200 participants who consumed an intermediate amount of salt.
•There were 50 deaths from heart attack and stroke among the approximately 1,200 participants who consumed the least salt.
•Participants who consumed the most salt had higher systolic blood pressure (the first number),but not higher diastolic blood pressure (the second number).

These results were the exact opposite of what was expected. Death rates from cardiovascular disease were five times higher in the group that consumed the least salt. How could this be?

Higher Systolic Blood Pressure May Not Cause Cardiovascular Disease by Itself

The researchers found a direct relationship between salt consumption and systolic blood pressure, but not between salt consumption and diastolic blood pressure. It could be that higher diastolic blood pressure, meaning the blood vessels don't get a chance to recover from high blood pressure between heart beats, is a more important factor in heart disease.

And it is also possible that the Europeans in the study who consumed the least salt had already been put on a low-salt diet by their doctors. This means that a low-salt diet may actually have helped them, but the parameters of the study don't give researchers a way to tell.

Chances are that if you already have high blood pressure or heart disease, you still should avoid salt. But if you are healthy, salt may not be a major factor in staying healthy.

Source:
•Katarzyna Stolarz-Skrzypek, Tatiana Kuznetsova, Lutgarde Thijs, Jan A. Staessen, et al. for the European Project on Genes in Hypertension (EPOGH) Investigators. Fatal and Nonfatal Outcomes, Incidence of Hypertension, and Blood Pressure Changes in Relation to Urinary Sodium Excretion. JAMA. 4 May 2011;305(17):1777-1785.

Denne artikkelen er veldig interessant. Mest fordi jeg frykter at forskerne her faller i en klassisk forskerfelle. Her ser man nemlig kun på inntak av salt.

Hvem spiser mye salt? Hovedsakelig de som ikke er så "flinke" med kostholdet generellt. Og hvem spiser lite salt? Jo, det er de "flinke", som er svært kostholdsbevisst. Vi vet at alle typer ferdigmat har høyt innehold av salt, men hva annet inneholder de? Usunne fettstoffer, E stoffer og andre "fillere" (tapetlim, som Anisa snakket om i et innlegg for noen uker siden) som er tilsatt for at maten skal får den "rette" smak eller konsistens. Er det da salt som har den negative påvirkningen på helsa (i dette tilfellet hovedsakelig det systoliske BT)eller er det andre faktorer? Hadde alle faktorer vært tatt i betraktning her kunne kanskje.

Min konklusjon er derfor: Hadde ALLE faktorer i kostholdet her vært tatt i betraktning hadde det kanskje kunnet føre til en endring i kostholdsanbefalingene om lite salt.