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Cutting salt intake can save 92,000 American lives
yearly
Reported January 22, 2010
Shaving 3 grams off the daily salt intake of Americans could prevent up to
66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths in the United States,
while saving $24 billion in health costs per year, researchers reported on
Wednesday.
The benefit to the U.S. population would be comparable to cutting smoking by
50 percent, significantly lowering obesity rates and giving cholesterol
drugs to virtually everyone to prevent heart attacks, said Dr. Kirsten
Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California, San Francisco and
colleagues.
Such a goal, they said, is readily attainable.
Salt, which contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease, is widely
overused in the United States, with 75 to 80 percent coming from processed
food. Men typically consume 10.4 grams per day. For women, the average is
7.3 grams. Its use is rising.
A reduction of 1 gram would prevent 11,000 to 23,000 strokes, 18,000 to
35,000 heart attacks and 15,000 to 32,000 deaths from any cause, the
researchers reported in New England Journal of Medicine.
Women would benefit the most.
"Even if the federal government were to bear the entire cost of a regulatory
program designed to reduce salt consumption, the government would still be
expected to realize cost savings for Medicare, saving $6 to $12 in health
expenditures for each dollar spent on the regulatory program," the
researchers wrote.
In a commentary, Dr. Lawrence Appel and Cheryl Anderson of Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore said the new study may be underestimating the
benefits.
They said it did not take into account how it would help children or the
fact that lower salt intake may reduce the risk of stomach cancer, kidney
disease, congestive heart failure and osteoporosis.
Source: Reuters |
