PART I OF IV SODIUM AND HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

Hypertension affects about one-quarter of the world's adult population. An even greater proportion of people in North America, about one-third, have hypertension. High sodium intake can increase the risk for high blood pressure. As such, sodium restriction is a first-line intervention for people with prehypertension and hypertension.
However, many people are still consuming more than twice the recommended amount of sodium. This demonstrates the need for healthcare professionals to educate individuals about the importance of reducing sodium intake.

How Much is Too Much?
Overall, most people are getting too much sodium. The average adult consumes around 3500 mg (150 mmol) of sodium per day. The American Heart Association, the
USDA, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend that adults should not consume more than 2300 mg (100 mmol) of sodium per day. This is equal to about one teaspoon of salt daily Health Canada and the Canadian Hypertension Education Program (CHEP) make the same recommendation.

A more limited recommendation applies for individuals with hypertension, the middle-aged, older adults, and blacks. This group, which includes about two-thirds of adults, should get no more than 1500 mg (65 mmol) of sodium per day. CHEP recommends between 65 mmol and 100 mmol for hypertensive individuals.

The generally accepted max is 2300 mg sodium/day...about one teaspoon table salt. But even that's too much for some people.

Recommend staying under 1500 mg/day for people with hypertension, over age 40, or African Americans. Most people get DOUBLE this much.

Many folks THINK they don't eat much salt because they don't use the salt shaker...but most comes from prepared foods.

Explain that a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup has about 2000 mg of sodium...and some restaurant meals contain over 5000 mg.

Suggest cutting back and following the 1500 mg sodium DASH diet...especially for patients with prehypertension or hypertension.

Explain that this DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet can lower BP about the same as a thiazide diuretic or ACE inhibitor.

Also caution patients that too much salt can make diuretics less effective and lead to increased blood pressure or edema.

Keep in mind that some meds have a lot of sodium...especially antacids and effervescent formulations. Zegerid (omeprazole) has 304 mg sodium per cap...Alka-Seltzer

Original has over 500 mg per tab.

But explain that most oral meds that come as a sodium salt, such as levothyroxine sodium or pravastatin sodium, won't increase BP.

Please remember, as with all our articles we provide information, not medical advice.
For any treatment of your own medical condition you must visit your local doctor, with or without our article[s]. These articles are not to be taken as individual medical advice.

*Tune in tomorrow for PART II OF IV SODIUM AND HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

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