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Comment by esaym | Hacker News Reader

>"diets that include too much salt"

Hasn't that been debunked I thought I read? I certainly hope so.

I had the pleasure of visiting with my Grandma's sister who was down for the holidays with us. She did not eat much of our cooking as she stated that her doctor had her on a "low sodium diet". She said she couldn't eat alot of things she liked, but it wasn't so bad as there was no restriction on sugar intake so she "gets to eat all the sweets" she wants.

And that was demonstrated several times at the dessert table and by the several bags of candy she brought with her from back home. I was quite dumbfounded.

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What I've read is that only about 20% of the population has salt induced hypertension. Regarding low salt diet which I am on due to kidney disease, our tastes actually adapt the lower salt contents if you do it long enough however you still need enough to bring out the flavor in many things. My solution is to pick things that have other stronger tastes like sweet, sour, spicy, etc.

Vinegar or lemon juice also help perk flavors up.

Don't forget lime juice!

Also low salt can result in muscle cramps.

https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/heat-cramps#1

Recent studies have, in fact, shown that dietary salt has a significant effect on blood pressure for many people, and on endothelial function for everyone.

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/sodium-and-arterial-functio...

"My doctor" (scare quotes included free of charge) says that it's only really important for people who are hypersensitive to sodium.

I didn't ask if there was a test for that, though. So you know, take it with a - I'm so sorry I can't help it - grain of salt.

I read the transcript, and this describes a temporary affect. There are better studies on the long term effect that say the effect of salt is very low on long term health outcomes.

Debunked is too strong a word. It has undergone revision.

If you have normal blood pressure (normotensive population), then a high-salt diet has no association with cardiovascular events and death:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-67... /"Compared with moderate sodium intake, high sodium intake is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and death in hypertensive populations (no association in normotensive population), while the association of low sodium intake with increased risk of cardiovascular events and death is observed in those with or without hypertension. These data suggest that lowering sodium intake is best targeted at populations with hypertension who consume high sodium diets."/

Eating too little salt can result in increased risk of cardiovascular events and death: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3558770/ /"we cannot extrapolate that lowering sodium consumption would reduce cardiovascular risk or premature death. In fact, randomized controlled trial evidence suggests just the opposite: that lower sodium intake may lead to worsened cardiovascular disease and earlier death."/

Low salt == higher risk of a heart attack resulting in death: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21540421 /"Among 3681 participants followed up for a median 7.9 years, CVD deaths decreased across increasing tertiles of 24-hour sodium excretion... Lower sodium excretion was associated with higher CVD mortality."/

Salt intake is not associated with blood pressure, although body mass index and age are: https://academic.oup.com/ajh/article/28/3/362/2743418/Relati... /"Considering their squared partial correlation coefficient, age and BMI were the most important parameters relating to SBP [systolic blood pressure] level. Salt intake was not associated with SBP in either sex after multiple adjustments."

If you do have high blood pressure, supplement with potassium: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26039623 /"Potassium supplementation is associated with reduction of blood pressure"//

Salt intake is not linked to heart problems for adults 71 to 80 years old: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullart... /"we observed that sodium intake estimated by FFQ [food frequency questionnaire] was not associated with mortality or risk for CVD [cardiovascular disease] and HF [heart failure] in a cohort of adults 71 to 80 years old. These findings extended to sex-based and race-based subgroups and in participants with and without hypertension at baseline."/

>If you do have high blood pressure, supplement with potassium

Note that for some very common blood pressure meds, potassium is contraindicated and can lead to hyperkalemia (excessive potassium). This should be indicated in a warning printed on the bottle.

Hyperkalemia can kill you by stopping your heart.

Which is why it’s impossible to buy potassium supplements in some parts of the world.

Is there a particular gene that is linked with high sodium causing hypertension?

>> Hasn't that been debunked I thought I read? I certainly hope so.

I have heard of no such "debunking". With all due respect, but you should really try to do a bit of research and backup such assertions, when they can start rumours that could affect peoples' health. "I thought I read" is not nearly enough to claim some health guideline is now "debunked".

Btw, sugar intake is definitely not known to raise blood pressure, at least until it leads to other problems like diabetes, which can ruin your kidneys and then cause raised blood pressure. Your grandma's sister was probably misinterpreting her doctor's advice, most likely along the lines that "sugar isn't bad for blood pressure" to mean that she can have all the sugar that she likes. That your grandma's sister had a very unreasonable reaction to the unfortunate restrictions imposed on her diet, does not have anything to do with whether salt raises blood pressure, of course.

It is not that new, and it's been widely covered.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170425124909.h...

https://academic.oup.com/ajh/article/28/3/362/2743418

Yes, there are a few studies like the ones you quote that contradict the received wisdom about the relation of salt and blood pressure, but they are still very few (compared to the studies that show the opposite) and very new, to be anywhere near "debunking" anything.

On top of that, current recommendations (from the WHO, US CDC and others) are to limit salt intake to between 3-5mg daily (for healthy adults) and while those recommendations stand, dismissing them as "bunkum" is irresponsible.

In general, a handful of studies is never enough to challenge long-standing assumptions, in science. It takes a lot more work and a lot more time. Until then, spreading rumours that the assumptions have been "debunked" risks being harmful.

For an example: a friend of mine is convinced, after reading some article in the popular press, that it is not salt that raises blood pressure, but the additives put into it, so she insists on cooking meals for her hypertensive partner with sea salt, that doesn't have additives (so, according to her, it doesn't raise blood pressure). Her partner is on anti-hypertensive medicine, has had a bypass and should really be keeping his salt intake under control. His health is in danger because of someone's haste to report an isolated study as a paradigm shift.

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