Community should reduce salt intake

Monday 14th September 2009 HCFI New Delhi :Heat attacks, heart failure and heart deaths can be reduced in the community if the salt intake is reduced at the family level said Dr KK Aggarwal President Heart Care Foundation of India and MTNL Perfect Health Mela.
Reducing community salt consumption can result in health care savings due to lower incidence of hypertension and can also bring quality-of-life improvements, according to a study published in the September/October issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Kartika Palar and Roland Sturm, Ph.D., of RAND in Santa Monica, Calif., studied a model based on population-level data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 1999 to 2004 on blood pressure, use of antihypertensive medication and sodium intake, combined with data on the effects of sodium, disease outcomes, costs and impact on quality of life.
They reported that if average population intake of salt is reduced to les than 2.3 grams per day there would be 1.1 crore less cases of hypertension in the society.
The benefits would be even greater if salt intake was reduced to below this level.