Medindia LOGIN REGISTER
Medindia

Cutting Down on Salt can Reduce Blood Pressure, Premature Death Risk

by Adeline Dorcas on Jun 11 2019 3:33 PM

Can too much salt lead to early death? Yes, high salt intake may up premature death risk. Therefore, reducing salt intake and eliminating unhealthy trans fat from the diet can lower blood pressure (BP) levels and also prevent 94 million premature deaths.

Cutting Down on Salt can Reduce Blood Pressure, Premature Death Risk
Eating too much salt can be associated with a higher risk of early death from heart disease. Therefore, limiting salt intake can prevent high blood pressure (hypertension) and make you live longer.
A worldwide effort to lower people's blood pressure, cut sodium intake and eliminate trans fat from their diet could prevent 94 million premature deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) over a quarter century, says a study.

Regions expected to benefit most from the interventions include East Asia, the Pacific, and South Asia, as well as countries in sub-Saharan Africa, said the study published online in the journal Circulation.

"Focusing our resources on the combination of these three interventions can have a huge potential impact on cardiovascular health through 2040," said lead author Goodarz Danaei, Associate Professor of Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

For the study, the researchers used global data from multiple studies and estimates from the World Health Organization in making their calculations.

They estimated that scaling up treatment of high blood pressure to 70 percent of the world's population could extend the lives of 39.4 million people.

Cutting sodium intake by 30 percent could stave off another 40 million deaths and could also help decrease high blood pressure, a major risk factor for CVD.

Advertisement
And eliminating trans fat could prevent 14.8 million early deaths.

More than half of all delayed deaths, and two-thirds of deaths delayed before 70 years, are projected to be among men, the researchers found.

Advertisement
The authors said a variety of programs and policies would be necessary to reduce premature CVD-related deaths. One important strategy would be to increase the use of blood pressure medications, many of which are safe and affordable.

The research team acknowledged that scaling up the three interventions would be a "huge challenge," requiring countries to commit additional resources to boost health care capacity and quality.

Source-IANS


Advertisement

Home

Consult

e-Book

Articles

News

Calculators

Drugs

Directories

Education