For the past 100 years, people who have poor heart health have been told by their doctors to lessen their salt intake, although until now, there has been small scientific evidence behind the recommendation.
As indicated in a EurekAert! report, a large randomized clinical trial to examine sodium reduction and heart failure reported outcomes simultaneously in The Lancet and at the 71st Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology over the weekend, and the findings were incorporated.
Even though lessening salt intake did not result in fewer emergency visits, hospital admissions, or deaths for patients suffering from heart failure, the researchers indeed saw an improvement in symptoms like swelling, coughing, and fatigue, as well as better quality of life, in general.
According to Justin Ezekowitz, lead author of the study and professor in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, they can no longer put a blanket recommendation across all patients and say that limiting the intake of sodium will reduce the odds of either dying or being admitted to the hospital.
However, this professor, who's also co-director of the Canadian VIGOUR Center, said he could say comfortably that it could enhance the quality of life of people overall.
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Even though lessening salt intake did not result in fewer emergency visits, hospital admissions, or deaths for patients suffering from heart failure, the researchers indeed saw an improvement in symptoms like swelling, coughing, and fatigue, as well as better quality of life, in general.
Dietary Sodium and Poor Hearth Health
Researchers of the study published in The Lancet observed more than 800 patients at 26 medical centers in the United States, Canada, Columbia, Mexico, New Zealand, and Chile.
All participants suffered from heart failure, a condition in which the heart turns too weak to pump blood effectively. Half of the study participants were randomly assigned to get standard care, whereas the rest were given nutritional counseling on how to lessen their dietary salt intake.
Patients under the trial's nutritional counseling arm were provided with dietitian-designed menu recommendations using foods from their areas and were encouraged to engage in home cooking minus adding salt and to prevent the use of high-salt ingredients.
Most dietary sodium is added, though not seen in processed foods or meals in restaurants, instead of being shaken at the table, explained Ezekowitz.
Recommended Salt Intake
The professor also said the broad rule that he has learned from dietitians is that anything inside a bag, a box, or a can have more salt in it than any individual would think. Ezekowitz is a cardiologist at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute and director of the University of Alberta's Cardiovascular Research Institute.
The target sodium intake was 1,500 milligrams each day, or the equivalent of roughly two-thirds of a teaspoon of salt, which is the Health Canada suggested limit for most Canadians whether they are suffering from heart failure or not, a related Medical Xpress report specified.
Prior to the conduct of this study, patients consumed an average of 2,217 milligrams each day, or just less than one teaspoon. After a year of research, the usual care group consumed 2,072 milligrams of sodium on average each day, while those who were provided with nutritional guidance consumed about 1,658 milligrams a day, a decrease of a little less than a quarter teaspoon equivalent.
The study investigators compared mortalities rates from any cause, hospitalization due to cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular emergency department visits in the two research groups, although they did not find a statistically substantial difference.
Low-Sodium Consumption
The study investigators found constant improvement for the low-sodium cohort that used three different quality life assessment mechanisms, and the New York Heart Association heart failure association, a gauge of severity of heart failure.
Ezekowitz explained that he will continue advising heart failure patients to reduce their salt intake, although now he will be clearer about the benefits to expect. More so, he urged clinicians to acknowledge that dietary changes can be helpful interventions for some of their patients.
The researchers will carry out further research to isolate a marker in the patients' blood-the patients who benefited most from the low-sodium diet, to be able to provide more targeted individual diet prescriptions in the future.
Lastly, the study investigators will conduct a follow-up trial, too, on patients at 24 months and five years to identify whether further benefits are achieved over the long term.
Related information about sodium intake and heart health is shown on Dr. Eric Berg DC's YouTube video below:
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