Cardiovascular disease and salt intake: Here’s why low-sodium diets may not help people with heart failure

Sodium is a mineral found naturally in a variety of foods. They are also added to foods for flavour and as part of preservatives and additives. While your body needs sodium to maintain normal fluid balance, consuming too much salt has been linked to many health conditions. Perhaps, people with heart disease are often recommended to follow a low-salt/low-sodium diet to improve their health.

However, a recent opinion says that there’s little proof that eating low-sodium diets may help people with heart ailments. A professor of Pediatrics, suggested that there isn’t enough evidence to back the medical organisations’ recommendations to steer clear of salt on people with various health issues. The Prof.  also highlights a recent report published to support his claims that diets low in sodium may not help prevent cardiovascular disease. For this study, researchers reviewed nine previous studies that involved 479 patients who were prescribed reduced sodium intake to treat heart failure. 

The report states that there were no data from these studies that showed that salt restriction reduced mortality or cardiac disease, nor did it affect whether the patients were admitted to the hospital or influence how long they had to stay. Of the four outpatient studies, two showed reduced sodium diet improve heart function, and two did not, the report added.

Of the various trials and analyses he includes in his report, she cites the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s review that examined the effects of both sodium and potassium intake on health. AHRQ reported that decreasing dietary sodium intake ‘most likely reduces’ blood pressure. It also reported that increasing potassium intake most likely has the same effect. He also includes other systematic reviews that found increased intake of fibre was associated with a lower risk of heart disease.

Although both the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and the Mediterranean diet have been linked to a reduced risk of heart failure, he argues that such diets may actually do more harm than good, while also adding that they would benefit from more controlled trials to prove their worth.

While people who take large amounts of salt might need to cut back their intake to reduce possible health risks and disease associated with high-sodium diet, more evidence is required before major health organisations update their current recommendations, according to the researcher. Furthermore, he suggests that doctors could advise people to make healthy holistic lifestyle changes in general, such as eating more healthfully and exercising regularly to improve heart health.

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