A Pinch Less Salt Could Save Lives, Money

Jan. 21, 2010— -- Cutting daily salt intake by three grams – just over a teaspoon -- could prevent 32,000 strokes and 54,000 heart attacks a year. So say researchers at the University of California, San Francisco who developed a novel computer program to predict the clinical impact of salt reduction.

Using the computer model to simulate the impact of heart disease in U.S. adults age 35 to 84, the researchers found that even reducing salt intake by a mere one gram per day over the next decade would be a more cost-effective strategy for treating hypertension than use of even the cheapest antihypertensive drug, Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo and colleagues wrote in a paper published online today by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Lee Goldman of Columbia University, who co-authored the paper, told MedPage Today that study builds on what has long been known about the adverse health effects of a society that seems to believe that salt is the spice of life.

For example, Goldman said that most people seeking a healthy choice will check food labels and restaurant menus for calorie counts and trans fats, but will not pay attention to salt.

This is not the first time a call for salt reduction has been issued; as recently as last November, a review of past research published in the British Medical Journal suggested that if everyone cut their salt intake in half – all told, a reduction of about 5 grams a day -- they would lower the stroke rate by 23 percent and reduce overall cardiovascular disease by as much as 17 percent.

Americans, like those in many Western countries, average about 10 grams of daily salt intake, whereas the World Health Organization recommends only 5 grams per day, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends daily intake be limited to 5.8 grams.

But even reductions that would simply bring Americans closer to this ideal could have big effects, the new study suggests. Bibbins-Domingo and colleagues reported that a three-gram-per-day reduction in dietary salt would "save 194,000 to 392,000 quality-adjusted life-years and $10 billion to $24 billion in health care costs annually," while more modest one-gram reduction over the next decade would "be more cost effective than using medications to lower blood pressure in all persons with hypertension."