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UD, Christiana Care researchers find more reason to ease up on salt

Delaware Public Media

The FDA recommends that we limit our sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams a day. But the average American consumes a daily amount of 3,400 milligrams.

Physicians have long warned us that too much salt can be a lot of trouble when it comes to high blood pressure. But researchers at Christiana Care Health System and University of Delaware say that after reviewing over a hundred studies, the adverse effects of salt can also be seen in our organs.

Bill Farquhar, chair of University of Delaware’s cardiology research laboratory, was one of several authors on the review published in the current issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

“Even if your blood pressure doesn’t go up, if you eat a lot of salt. that high salt can have adverse effects on various target organs, like the heart, the blood vessels, the kidney,” said Farquhar.

Specifically, high salt can interfere with the blood vessels’ ability to dilate. It can also cause kidneys to excrete excess protein and heart muscles to thicken, which can lead to adverse long term effects on the body.

A review like this might prompt doctors to tell their patients to consume less salt. But William Weintraub, the chair of cardiology at Christiana Care and senior author of the study, believes it’s not a realistic solution, given the state of our busy modern lives.

“You really can’t take salt out of the diet unless you prepare all of your own food with fresh food, which sounds great but the reality is that it’s not what people are going to do,” said Weintraub.

Weintraub said that he has more faith in the actions of American Heart Association than legislators, and believes that the solution lies in working with food companies, like McDonalds, that makes sodium-packed foods so widely available.

Farquhar says that the next steps involve conducting  more comprehensive research on the relationship between salt intake and the health of these target organs. That potentially means taking subjects who don’t have high blood pressure, but have a record of high salt intake, and monitoring their blood vessels during a period of lower salt consumption.