The amount of salt we take every day seems to be to high and that may lead to serious cardiovascular problems and ultimately, to death

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The amount of salt we take every day seems to be to high and that may lead to serious cardiovascular problems and ultimately, to death

Up until now there have been many so many studies related to the amount of sodium we should have daily and on the amount of potassium we need to keep us healthy, that all the research has come to one conclusion: high intake of salt leads to early mortality.

A group of researchers at the Harvard Medical School made a study related to the amounts of salt and potassium people should have daily in order to lead a healthy life. What they found out was that big amounts of salt and low amounts of potassium are the sure way to developing a heart condition very early and die. “The combination of high sodium and low potassium is really a double whammy for cardiovascular risk and for mortality,” said lead researcher Dr. Frank B. Hu.

Furthermore, it seems that although high intake of potassium may solve some of the damage caused by the high intakes of salt, the effects are really insignificant. The only way to prevent these heart conditions from developing is by reducing drastically the salt consumption and to increase the potassium intake. The best thing you can do is to give up processed foods, which have the highest levels of salt, and try to follow a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Potassium is known to be found in very good levels in fruits such as bananas and also in baked potatoes and raisins.

What the researchers did was to collect and analyze data coming from 12,267 people who were once part of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Linked Mortality File, which took place from 1988 to 2006. Aside of the data about mortality, the information also contained dietary knowledge about all the participants. The researchers analyzed data regarding the levels of salt and potassium these participants had and analyzed the ratio between them. The research shows that during a period of almost 15 years, out of all the participants, about 2,270 died, 443 of them died of a heart disease, while the rest died from a cardiovascular disease, among which strokes are very popular.

The researchers took into account things such as gender, age, ethnicity, education, blood pressure and weight, but also physical activity and they found out that 20 percent of the deaths were associated to high intakes of sodium. On the other hand, high intakes of potassium accounted for 20 percent less deaths. However, the even worse news is that a combination of high levels of sodium and low levels of potassium increases even more the risk of heart conditions and ultimately, death. This shows that the nutrients are not as important when taken separately, but taken together they can do either good or really bad things to our health.

Given that there have been so many deaths linked to this situation, back in 2010, the National Salt Reduction Initiative started and what the organization is trying to do is to reduce the intake of sodium, consistently. “We now have 28 companies who have committed to reducing the salt levels in at least one of their categories of products,” says Thomas A. Farley, MD, of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The best thing people can do right now in relation to this whole situation is to start changing their diet and that should happen as soon as possible.

Banans are one of the most popular sources of potassium and people should start eating more of these if they want to lead a healthier life

Given that the combination between lower potassium intakes and high sodium intakes turned out to be fatal, the ratio should change. Things should be exactly the other way round. People should stop eating foods which are high in sodium and they should switch to foods which are high in potassium. There is also a very famous diet which does exactly this and this diet has been around for a very long time. Maybe people should start using it, if they want to lead a healthier life and if they do not want to risk anything. The diet is called the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet and as said before, it has been around for a very long time and people who used it have seen great results. Of course, food producers have also to decrease the amount of salt in the products, but that may take a while. Still, the organizations which deal with such things are trying to do their best in order to make things better for us all. The amount of salt that American have been recommended to intake daily is less than 2,300 milligrams (that means that they are allowed to have less than a teaspoon of salt each day) for almost all people, except for those who are older than 51 (or younger but already suffering from heart conditions, high blood pressure or diabetes), whose sodium intake should be of only 1,500 milligrams per day.

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