Salt Consumption and its possible effects on heart and overall health isn’t something much unknown to us at this point. With the over piling stress being already a contributor to one’s state of hypertension, the excess salt consumption is also being a very definitive reason behind the spike blood pressure which is making the heart health worse.
A new study (R) exclaims that while the permissible consumption of salt on a daily basis doesn’t alter one’s overall functioning of the heart, the moment when the levels of daily consumption of salt exceeds five grams a day (2.5 tablespoon), that’s when the problems start to creep in. statistics suggest that less that 5% of the citizens from around the globe in the developed countries tend to exceed that limit. So, are you in that percentage as well?
The research was conducted on a global basis, internationally to scale the conclusions on a wider range. It was conducted by the scientists of the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences along with their esteemed group of international research colleagues from 21 different countries around the world.
The study was published on August 09, 2018 in The Lancet.
The study was conducted amidst 94,000 subjects in between the age of 35-70 from around 18 countries across the world for a better and vivid conclusion regarding the effects of salt consumption on one’s heart activity and functioning. The researchers finally concluded that the risks are only prone to people who exceed the daily consumption of salt more than 5 grams. The heightened risks primarily subject the person to possibility of strokes or cardiac arrest because of increased blood pressure.
The vivid research only found the province of China to be under the majority of risks with more than 80% of their population consuming more than 5 grams of salt every day. Their results indicated that the amount of salt consumption, on an average, ranged between 3-5 grams every day which is around 1.5 to 2.5 tablespoons of salt.
The first author of this study and the PHRI researcher, Andrew Mente exclaimed stating that the ideal limitation to salt consumption of a daily basis should not be more than 2 gms which is 1 tablespoon, according to the World Health Organisation. With that being said, he also further stated that this lowered bar of salt consumption didn’t necessarily signify much of a difference with one’s health which is yet another factor why there are uncertainties encircling this low salt consumption.
Following the assessment of their test results, they concluded for a fact that the increased rate of cardiovascular impairments and strokes were only evidently witnessed in the Chinese population where the consumption exceeds the normal 5 grams mark. For other places and in other subjects, the researchers didn’t witness any signs of myocardial infarctions or possibilities of strokes.
Some of the involved countries in this research included subjects from countries like Argentina, Bangladesh, Chile, Columbia, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Poland, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, China, Sweden, Turkey, Brazil, Iran, United Arab Emirates, occupied Palestinian territory, and Zimbabwe.
Another author of the research, Martin O’Donnell who is also a PHRI researcher stated that all the prior studies encircling the correlation between salt intake and heart health were based off on the single person perspective and not on a wider scale which was not ideal. The recent study that was conducted on a global level is ideal primarily because of the fact public health strategies should be based on the best of the evidence. There are no solid evidences that claim that the fact that the lowered or average consumption of the salt will actually help prevent heart disease or stroke, unless the levels become exceedingly high.
