(Press-News.org) NEW YORK, NY (March, 2014) – A new study published in the American Journal of Hypertension finds evidence that the average daily sodium intake of most Americans is actually associated with better health outcomes than intake levels currently recommended by the CDC and major health departments, which are now being viewed by many in the scientific community as excessively and unrealistically low.
The study, "Compared With Usual Sodium Intake, Low-and Excessive-Sodium Diets Are Associated With Increased Mortality: A Meta-Analysis," concluded that 2,645 – 4,945 mg of sodium per day, a range of intake within which the vast majority of Americans fall, actually results in more favorable health outcomes than the CDC's current recommendation of less than 2300mg/day for healthy individuals under 50 years old, and less than 1500 mg/day for most over 50 years. This study was a combined analysis of 25 individual studies, which measured results from over 274,683 individuals.
Dr. Niels Graudal, the study's lead author, says the results are an important extension of the findings of a major 2013 Institute of Medicine report, which cast doubt on the current CDC recommendations but failed to establish any specific optimum range of intake. "Our results are in line with the IOM's concern that lower levels could produce harm, and they provide a concrete basis for revising the recommended range in the best interest of public health."
"The good news," he says, "is that around 95% of the global population already consumes within the range we've found to generate the least instances of mortality and cardiovascular disease."
Analysis of the results found that, as with all other essential nutrients, there was a U-shaped correlation between sodium intake and health outcomes. When consumption deviated from the 2,645 – 4,945 mg range mortality increased, so that both excessively high and low consumption of sodium were associated with reduced survival.
The study also found that there is little-to-no variation in health outcomes between individuals as long as their consumption remained within the ideal intake range (2,645 – 4,945 mg/day).
INFORMATION:
About Dr. Niels Graudal: Dr. Graudal is a researcher at the University of Copenhagen Hospital in Denmark and a committee member at the Institute of Medicine.
About American Journal of Hypertension: American Journal of Hypertension is a monthly, peer-reviewed journal that provides a forum for scientific inquiry of the highest standards in the field of hypertension and related cardiovascular disease. The journal publishes high-quality original research and review articles on basic sciences, molecular biology, clinical and experimental hypertension, cardiology, epidemiology, pediatric hypertension, endocrinology, neurophysiology, and nephrology.
Compared With Usual Sodium Intake, Low- and Excessive-Sodium Diets Are Associated With Increased Mortality: A Meta-Analysis
http://ajh.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/03/26/ajh.hpu028.full
Link will be live upon embargo date. A full PDF of the article is available upon request.
Niels Graudal, Gesche Jürgens, Bo Baslund, and Michael H. Alderman
Please contact me with any inquiries regarding this study or the American Journal of Hypertension.
Best,
Sam Blum
Levels of sodium intake recommended by CDC associated with harmful health outcomes
2014-04-02
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Great minds think alike
2014-04-02
Pinecone or pine nut? Friend or foe? Distinguishing between the two requires that we pay special attention to the telltale characteristics of each.
And as it turns out, us humans aren't the only ones up to the task.
According to researchers at the University of Iowa, pigeons share our ability to place everyday things in categories. And, like people, they can hone in on visual information that is new or important and dismiss what is not.
"The basic concept at play is selective attention. That is, in a complex world, with its booming, buzzing confusion, we don't attend ...
'Touched' female cockroaches reproduce faster
2014-04-02
To speed up reproduction, there's no substitute for the tender touch of a live cockroach.
That's the major takeaway from a North Carolina State University study examining whether artificial antennae – in this case, duck feathers – can mimic a cockroach antenna's capacity to hasten reproduction in cockroach females.
Female cockroaches that get "touched" – by other female cockroaches and, under certain conditions, even by duck feathers that mimic roach antennae – reproduce faster than female roaches that live in isolation or without tactile stimulation.
...
Ancient nomads spread earliest domestic grains along Silk Road, study finds
2014-04-02
Charred grains of barley, millet and wheat deposited nearly 5,000 years ago at campsites in the high plains of Kazakhstan show that nomadic sheepherders played a surprisingly important role in the early spread of domesticated crops throughout a mountainous east-west corridor along the historic Silk Road, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.
"Our findings indicate that ancient nomadic pastoralists were key players in an east-west network that linked innovations and commodities between present-day China and southwest Asia," said study co-author ...
Unvaccinated infants act as 'kindling' to fuel epidemics
2014-04-02
ANN ARBOR—Nearly 4 million children under 5 die from vaccine-preventable diseases worldwide each year, and two University of Michigan doctoral ecology students are working to change that.
By taking into account seasonal fluctuations in birth rates, massive vaccination campaigns in the developing world could inoculate more unprotected infants and significantly reduce the number of deaths from diseases like measles, according to Micaela Martinez-Bakker and Kevin Bakker of the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
"If you have lots of kindling, you can have ...
Care of heart failure patients falling short in the UK
2014-04-02
Care of patients with heart failure in the UK is inadequate and has not changed in a decade, according to new research published in BMJ Open.
The findings by a team at Durham University and Darlington Memorial Hospital - and funded by national charity Heart Research UK - highlight inadequacies in heart failure care as well as an uncoordinated approach to diagnosis and management of the condition between primary and secondary care clinicians.
The research showed that clinicians are uncertain about how to diagnose different types of heart failure and about who has overall ...
Warm North Atlantic Ocean promotes extreme winters in US and Europe
2014-04-02
The extreme cold weather observed across Europe and the east coast of the US in recent winters could be partly down to natural, long-term variations in sea surface temperatures, according to a new study published today.
Researchers from the University of California Irvine have shown that a phenomenon known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO)—a natural pattern of variation in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures that switches between a positive and negative phase every 60-70 years—can affect an atmospheric circulation pattern, known as the North Atlantic ...
Not so dirty: Methane fuels life in pristine chalk rivers
2014-04-02
Scientists from Queen Mary University of London have found that naturally high concentrations of the greenhouse gas methane contributes to energy production in chalk rivers, in a new study published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Chalk rivers, found from Dorset to Cambridgeshire, sustain a diverse range of protected animals and plants, and are renowned globally for fly fishing, an industry worth more than £4M on the Rivers Test and Itchen (Hampshire) alone.
"It's a surprise to find methane is such a big source of energy in these gin-clear ...
Male extinction prevented by promiscuous females
2014-04-02
LIVERPOOL, UK – 2 April 2014: Female fruit flies with a large number of sexual partners are playing an invaluable role in preventing the extinction of males, research at the University of Liverpool has shown.
Scientists have found that flies in the northern parts of the United States are more inclined to have multiple partners in order to reduce the occurrence of an X chromosome which causes the production of only female offspring.
This selfish genetic element (SGE) tries to replicate itself by killing sperm that carry the Y chromosome, but has the side-effect that ...
Still no clear evidence for health benefits of vitamin D
2014-04-02
They argue that "universal conclusions about its benefits cannot be drawn" and say further studies and better designed trials are needed.
A growing body of evidence indicates that vitamin D may reduce risks of a wide range of diseases, including bone mineral disease, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disorders, cancer and cardiovascular problems. Yet, despite hundreds of trials, the evidence for vitamin D is still being debated.
Two papers published on bmj.com today attempt to make sense of the existing data.
The first, by researchers based in the UK, Europe and USA, ...
Probiotics do not help infants with colic
2014-04-02
These findings differ from previous smaller trials and do not support a general recommendation for the use of probiotics to treat colic in infants.
Infant colic (excessive crying of unknown cause) affects up to 20% of infants and is a major burden to families and health services. Although it spontaneously resolves three to four months after birth, its cause remains elusive and no single effective treatment exists.
Previous small trials suggest that the probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri effectively treats colic in breastfed infants. These studies, however, had limitations ...