Too Little Salt Causes Problems Too

For years, doctors and other health professionals have been telling people to decrease their salt intake. Doing that was said to decrease the chance of cardiac events and heart disease. That direction may have to be changed, however, as some studies are finding that too little salt may be just as dangerous. Some experts are saying that this study is not completely valid. Why is this the case?

The problem is that the studies that dictated the need to decrease salt intake were done on healthy people. The people who have the highest chance of heart disease, however, are obese people, who are not healthy. Their reduced salt intake may just not be enough to help them to decrease their incidence of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiac issues that lead to hospitalization and/or death. That is why you want to think about moderation in all things, including your salt intake.

The study suggests that people that use salt moderately have the lowest risk, but again, this study was done on healthy people, rather than people who are obese. A higher risk of cardiac death and congestive heart failure were found in those subjects that had a very low salt intake and very high salt intake. The studies were not able to show that decreasing salt intake had favorable results in patients. Keeping your salt intake in the moderate range is the goal that you want to have.

This is not cause to increase your salt intake, however. Studies are still being conducted to determine the exact reasoning for these study results to ensure that doctors are able to give the best information to their patients. By cutting down your processed food consumption, eating more fresh foods, and eating salt in moderate amounts, you should be able to get healthier and reduce your chances of cardiac problems and even death.