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Finally, the mainstream wakes up and vindicates sodium

Salt pleads innocent

Finally!

Sooner or later it had to happen. Researchers finally got around to showing that salt/sodium consumption is NOT the problem. The real problem is…

Well, I’ll let the study speak for itself…

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers followed the diets and medical records of more than 12,000 adults for an average of about 15 years. Those who had the highest sodium intake and lowest potassium intake had the highest risk of dying from a cardiovascular event or illness.

Subjects who had the lowest ratio of sodium to potassium — that is, nearly equal consumption of each — were the least likely to die of a heart attack or stroke.

And there you have it. Just as Dr. Spreen and I have been telling you for years: When potassium intake is enough to balance sodium intake, there’s no reason to avoid salt like some kind of dietary poison.

So now that the mainstream has caught up with this very simple concept, let’s move on to the next important sodium issue.

CDC researchers? Are you listening? Please conduct a study to reveal just how thoroughly damaging it can be for elderly patients to cut their sodium intake as low as it will go.

A very low sodium blood level is called hyponatraemia. And it’s a condition inflicted on seniors every day by misinformed doctors and a misinformed media.

Saving seniors from “senior” symptoms

If you’re in your 70s or 80s and you confide in your doctor that you’re feeling fatigued, your balance isn’t so good anymore, and sometimes you’re easily confused, you know exactly what he’s going to tell you.

Something like… “These things are to be expected in advanced years.”

And that’s why doctors often miss a diagnosis for hyponatraemia.

Several years ago, German research showed that a surprising number of seniors suffer from hyponatraemia. The study reported that a large majority of the elderly subjects said they avoided salt based on the popular misconception that salt use causes high blood pressure.

The fact is, lowering sodium intake may actually INCREASE risk of heart attack and death.

In three different trials that tested low-sodium diets on patients with kidney disease and heart failure, results linked the special diets to higher risk of hospitalizations, cardiovascular events, and death.

Yeah — THAT wasn’t supposed to happen!

According to Dr. David McCarron — a nutritionist and University of California professor — there is currently no reliable evidence that backs up the accepted recommendation to reduce sodium intake for heart health. Dr. McCarron says the recommendation is based only on opinion and the demonization of salt by health authorities.

A few years ago, Dr. McCarron wrote, “My view is that it is very likely that low salt will ultimately prove to be another public health disaster. There is already sufficient evidence to suggest that low salt could actually result in increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

“But the reality is that the international community needs to commission controlled trials so that we have the evidence as to whether the current policy is safe and effective. To do anything less is irresponsible.”

So get to it, CDC and other mainstreamers. Bring on those gold standard studies. Or stop risking patients’ health by telling them to reduce their salt intake based on nothing more than medical dogma.

Sources:
“In with potassium, out with sodium” Jill U. Adams, Los Angeles Times, 7/24/11, latimes.com

“Junk Science Week: Salt scare lacks solid evidence” David McCarron, Financial Post, 6/14/10, financialpost.com

“Can Dietary Sodium Intake Be Modified by Public Policy?” Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, Vol. 4, No. 11, 11/1/09, cjasn.asnjournals.org

“European Geriatrics Congress: Low Salt Diet a Danger for Elderly” European Geriatrics Congress News Release, 9/20/04, prnewswire.co.uk

“Salt policy could be ‘a disaster waiting to happen'” UKPRwire, 7/27/07, ukprwire.com

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