Less cardiovascular risk with low sodium, high potassium diet

January 01, 0001

Less cardiovascular risk with low sodium, high potassium diet

These US authors estimated usual intakes of sodium and potassium as well as their ratio in relation to risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Linked Mortality File (1988-2006), a prospective cohort study of a nationally representative sample of 12,267 US adults, that studied all-cause, cardiovascular, and ischemic heart (IHD) diseases mortality.

They found: "During a mean follow-up period of 14.8 years, we documented a total of 2270 deaths, including 825 CVD deaths and 443 IHD deaths. After multivariable adjustment, higher sodium intake was associated with increased all-cause mortality (HR, 1.20 per 1000 mg/d), whereas higher potassium intake was associated with lower mortality risk (HR, 0.80 per 1000 mg/d). For sodium-potassium ratio, the adjusted HRs comparing the highest quartile with the lowest quartile were HR, 1.46 for all-cause mortality; HR, 1.46 for CVD mortality; and HR, 2.15 for IHD mortality. These findings did not differ significantly by sex, race/ethnicity, body mass index, hypertension status, education levels, or physical activity."

The authors concluded: "Our findings suggest that a higher sodium- potassium ratio is associated with significantly increased risk of CVD and all- cause mortality, and higher sodium intake is associated with increased total mortality in the general US population."

More evidence for a low salt and potassium rich diet.


For the full abstract, click here.

Arch Intern Med 171(13):1183-1191, 11 July 2011 © 2011 to the American Medical Association
Sodium and Potassium Intake and Mortality Among US Adults-Prospective Data From the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Quanhe Yang, Tiebin Liu, Elena V. Kuklina, et al. Correspondence to Dr. Yang: [email protected]

Category: K. Circulatory, T. Endocrine/Metabolic/Nutritional. Keywords: sodium, potassium, diet, cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, mortality, cohort study, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Linda French, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 22 July 2011

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.

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