Does dietary salt reduction lower blood pressure and prevent mortality from stroke and ischaemic heart disease?
Dietary salt reduction, particularly targeting processed foods, has the potential to substantially lower blood pressure and prevent tens of thousands of cardiovascular deaths annually.
The results from the trials support the estimates from the observational data in the accompanying two papers. The effect of universal moderate dietary salt reduction on mortality from stroke and ischaemic heart disease would be substantial--larger, indeed, than could be achieved by fully implementing recommended policy for treating high blood pressure with drugs. However, reduction also in the amount of salt added to processed foods would lower blood pressure by at least twice as much and prevent some 75,000 corrected deaths a year in Britain as well as much disability.
Law et al. (Sat,) studied this question.