SALT AND HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE? PART I

Dr. Brownstein, an author of 16 books (including the book, “Salt Your Way to Health,” from where much of our content is derived), a board-certified family physician who uses the best of conventional and alternative therapies, and the medical director at the Center for Holistic Medicine in West Bloomfield, MI, states that his medical training was clear in reference to a low salt diet being good, and a high-salt diet being bad. He was taught to promote a low-salt diet in all cases of hypertension. In fact, he was also taught to encourage people to adopt a lifelong dietary plan of low-salt in order to avoid getting high blood pressure. He states that, not only was he not successful in this approach, but that he rarely saw positive benefits at all from a low-salt diet in any measure.

Astoundingly, Dr Brownstein found very little data to support a low-salt diet being effective for hypertension in the vast majority of people. He also found that none – not one – of the studies looked at the use of unrefined salt. The medical literature never considered the mineral content that is so vital to maintain a normal blood pressure. His clinical experience, however, is very clear. When he corrects nutrient imbalances, such as the minerals found in unrefined salt, blood pressure normalizes without the use of medications.

Where did this idea of lowering salt to help blood pressure came from? It started in 1904, and studies for the next 50 years were done on animals to support the hypothesis of salt causing high blood pressure. In almost all of the studies, huge amounts of salt, 10 to 20 times greater than the recommended dosage for the animals, were given in the form of refined salt, known as sodium chloride. Of course, their blood pressure rose with such massive amounts of salt. Then, when they eliminated the salt on the overdosed rodents, there was a dramatic lowering of blood pressure. Medical researchers seized the results and, since that time, the low-salt dogma has persisted.

Then, a massive upset came onto the scene. Intersalt, an international study on salt intake looked at over 10,000 people from the ages of 20 to 59 from 52 regions in 39 different countries around the world. They looked at the relationship between salt in the urine and blood pressure. Higher salt intake resulted in a larger amount of salt excreted in the urine, so the kidneys were doing their job, and they were unable to link sodium excretion and high blood pressure.

Many other studies on salt and hypertension have also been performed over the years. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which is the US government’s method of collecting data on the nutrition status of Americans, found that inadequate levels of minerals, specifically potassium and calcium, were the best predictors of the presence of hypertension. They stated that an adequate intake of whole foods was associated with the lowest blood pressures. They also found that low-sodium diets were associated with higher blood pressure.

The CDC’s own data over the last 30 years also clearly shows a relationship between low-salt diets and high blood pressure, revealing that adequate mineral intake is much more important for maintaining low blood pressure than a low-sodium diet.

So what about the other side of the low-salt diet? Can it actually cause harm? In addition to the study just quoted, other researchers have similarly reported that when compared to a high-salt diet, a low-salt diet has been associated with a greater than 400% increase in risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack) in men.

How do you explain a higher risk of heart attack in the low-salt group? Mainly because low-salt diets increase insulin, and insulin resistance is a huge problem worldwide. It is highly associated with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, not to mention the elevated LDL cholesterol levels we discussed earlier on low-salt individuals.