From The June 2000 Issue of Nutrition Science News

Natural News

Sodium Increases Death Risk in the Overweight

In Western countries, current sodium consumption is many times higher than the sodium amounts ingested during human evolution. However, other than inducing hypertension in salt-sensitive people, the health implications of our high-salt intake have been questionable.

Now a large government survey analyzed by Jiang He, M.D., PhD., at Tulane University in New Orleans, has found that higher sodium intake in obese people increases the risk of stroke, heart disease and overall causes of death.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Study I (NHANES I) was a prospective survey conducted from 1971 to 1975 designed to sample the U.S. population. In this study, a total of 9,485 participants, including 931 overweight men and 1,757 overweight women, had a complete medical exam and recorded a single 24-hour dietary recall. Researchers noted that the diet recall method used probably underestimated sodium intake. Four follow-up sessions ascertaining illness and mortality were conducted between the years of 1982 and 1992.

Normal weight and overweight participants were each stratified into four groups, or quartiles, according to their sodium intake. Incidence of stroke, coronary disease and overall death rates were compared by quartile. The data were adjusted for caloric intake, systolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol, body mass index, diabetes, cigarette smoking, use of diuretics and alcohol intake.

The results? There was no correlation between sodium intake and disease in those who were not overweight. In the overweight, however, each 100 mmol (2,300 mg) additional daily sodium intake was associated with an 89 percent higher stroke death rate, a 61 percent higher heart disease death rate, and a 39 percent higher risk of deaths from all causes over the next 19 years.

This is the first study to show that sodium increases death risk in overweight people regardless of blood pressure.

—Journal of the American Medical Association, 1999 Dec 1; 282;21:2027-34