Does a low sodium diet reduce blood pressure and affect hormones and lipids compared to a high sodium diet in participants with normal blood pressure or hypertension?
Sodium reduction provides a modest decrease in blood pressure, particularly in hypertensive individuals, but consistently affects hormones and lipids.
In white participants, sodium reduction in accordance with the public recommendations resulted in mean arterial pressure (MAP) decrease of about 0.4 mmHg in participants with normal blood pressure and a MAP decrease of about 4 mmHg in participants with hypertension. Weak evidence indicated that these effects may be a little greater in black and Asian participants. The effects of sodium reduction on potential side effects (hormones and lipids) were more consistent than the effect on BP, especially in people with normal BP.
Graudal et al. (Sun,) studied this question.