SAN FRANCISCO, March 12 (UPI) -- A moderate decrease in daily salt intake could benefit the U.S. population and reduce the rates of heart disease and deaths, researchers said.
For every gram of salt that Americans reduce in their diets daily, a quarter of a million fewer new heart disease cases -- and at least 200,000 fewer deaths -- would occur over a decade, study lead author Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California, San Francisco.
"A very modest decrease in the amount of salt -- hardly detectable in the taste of food -- can have dramatic health benefits for the United States," Bibbins-Domingo said in a statement. "It was a surprise to see the magnitude of the impact on the population, given the very small reductions in salt that we were modeling."
A 3-gram-a-day reduction in salt intake -- about 1,200 mg of sodium -- would result in 6 percent fewer cases of new heart disease, 8 percent fewer heart attacks and 3 percent fewer deaths, the report said.
Even larger health benefits are projected for African-Americans, who are more likely to have high blood pressure and whose blood pressure may be more sensitive to salt, Bibbins-Domingo said. Among African-Americans, new heart disease cases would be reduced by 10 percent, heart attacks by 13 percent and deaths by 6 percent, the study said.
The findings were presented at the American Heart Association's 49th annual conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in Palm Harbor, Fla.
