High salt and stroke directly linked

WARWICK, England, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- High salt intake is unequivocally linked to stroke and heart disease, researchers in England and Italy found.

The review of 13 studies, involving more than 170,000 participants in Europe, Asia and North America, found high dietary salt intake directly linked to cardiovascular disease risk.

Researchers at World Health Organization's Collaborating Center for Nutrition at the University of Warwick and the European Society of Hypertension Excellence Center at Federico II University Medical School in Naples, Italy, said habitual daily salt intake is estimated to exceed 10 grams per day in most adult populations around the world.

Cutting daily salt intake by 5 grams, they said, could reduce stroke by 23 percent and all cardiovascular disease by 17 percent, which would mean averting 1.25 million strokes and almost 3 million vascular events worldwide each year.

"We have seen reductions in the salt content of several food items, due to the collaboration between governments, public health bodies and sectors of the industry on a voluntary basis," study researcher Francesco Cappuccio of Warwick said in a statement. "However, the progress towards the recommended targets has been slow."

The study is published in the British Medical Journal.