Half-teaspoon less salt daily could save lives

A 3-gram daily salt reduction per person would lower annual cases of heart disease and stroke by about one-third, according to an analysis published yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine. The authors used a computer-simulation model to estimate the change in consumption would save $10 billion to $24 billion in annual health care costs from drugs and other treatments for high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

Reducing salt intake would improve health as much as quitting smoking, losing weight, and taking medications for lowering cholesterol, the researchers found. Salt reduction lowers blood pressure, so a cutback of just 1 gram per day would have substantial benefits in about one-third of adults with high blood pressure, the study said.

“There is a common misperception that only certain people should reduce their salt intake and that for the vast majority of the population salt reduction is unnecessary,’’ said Lawrence Appel and Cheryl Anderson of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in an editorial published today in the journal. “The opposite is true. For adults who reach the age of 50 years, the lifetime risk that hypertension will develop is 90 percent.’’

Half a teaspoon of salt equals about 1,200 milligrams of sodium, or 3 grams of salt, according to the American Heart Association’s website. The association also announced it was lowering its recommended amount of daily sodium intake to less than 1,500 milligrams from 2,300 milligrams. Sodium is found in a number of products. Those include monosodium glutamate and baking soda.

The study was done by researchers from the University of California at San Francisco, at Stanford University, near Palo Alto, Calif., and at Columbia University in New York using a computer model of coronary heart disease in US residents age 35 and older. The researchers estimated that lowering daily salt intake by 3 grams would have health benefits at least as large as reducing smoking by 50 percent or using statin drugs to treat people with low or intermediate risk for heart disease.

New York City health officials are pushing for a reduction in the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant foods by 25 percent over the next five years, since Americans consume about twice the recommended daily amount of salt, city officials said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently changed other city health regulations, cutting trans fats in eateries and requiring fast-food restaurant menus to list calories.