People over the age of 55 may be one of the groups most at risk of being affected by hypertension.
Christo Gothard Hunor/Shutterstock
Replacing regular table salt with a potassium-rich substitute lowers blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke in people over the age of 55 and living in nursing homes.
Salt contains sodium, which can increase blood pressure. This salt substitute, which replaces some of the sodium with potassium, may lower blood pressure, but few studies have shown its effectiveness in people over the age of 55. These people make the swap because blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular events increase with age. There are also concerns that these substitutes can cause high levels of potassium in the blood, called hyperkalemia, which can lead to serious heart problems in some cases.
In a clinical trial involving 1612 people living in 48 care facilities in China, the diet consisted of regular salt containing 100% sodium chloride, a potassium-enriched salt substitute containing 62.5% sodium chloride, 25% potassium chloride and other flavoring, or generally low in salt. All participants were 55 years or older, with a mean age of 71.
Participants had an average blood pressure of 137.5/80.5 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) at the start of the study, with higher numbers representing systolic pressure (the heart’s ability to pump blood through the body) and lower numbers representing diastolic pressure. – Resistance to blood flow in blood vessels. The ideal reading is usually considered to be between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHg.
Nearly two-thirds of the participants had hypertension at the start of the study.
Over two years, those living in institutions where potassium-fortified salt substitutes were introduced had a 7.1 mmHg drop in systolic blood pressure and a 1.9 mmHg drop in diastolic blood pressure compared to the regular salt group.
“This is an impressive drop in blood pressure. [blood pressure-lowering] Bruce Neal of the George Institute for International Health in Sydney, Australia, said he was part of the research team.
Lower blood pressure was associated with 1.5 fewer heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular events per 100 people in the salt replacement group compared to the regular salt group.
In contrast, the group living in an institution that only reduced salt in their diet showed no reduction in mean blood pressure or the number of cardiovascular events. Neil says it may be because he added the salt himself.
The researchers also found that people in the salt replacement group had elevated blood potassium levels, but this was not associated with safety concerns.
Salt substitutes are slightly more expensive than regular salt, and most people cannot taste the difference.
“The whole evidence is that if everyone switched from regular salt to potassium-enriched salt, millions of premature strokes and heart attacks could be prevented worldwide each year,” he says.
topic:
