CV Events Increase Only With High Levels of Sodium Intake: PURE!
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Increased risks for stroke or cardiovascular disease (CVD) are seen only in communities where mean sodium intake exceeds 5 g per day, new research from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study shows. Investigators measured blood pressure (BP) in almost 96,000 adults in 300 communities across18 countries and assessed almost 83,000 adults for cardiovascular outcomes over an 8-year period. They analyzed participants' urine to determine sodium intake and found that higher sodium intake was associated with increased BP and incidence of stroke, but this association was found only in communities with very high sodium intake, almost all of which were located in China. On the other hand, higher sodium intake was actually associated with lower rates of myocardial infarction (MI) and total mortality.
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@mandeep The World Health Organization recommends reduction of sodium intake as a population-level intervention to reduce CVD and mortality. The rationale is based on the association between sodium intake and BP and is predicated on the assumption that any approach to reducing BP will translate into fewer clinical cardiovascular outcomes. However, the claim that the effects of salt on CVD are exclusively mediated through its effects on BP has never been proven. Moreover, no study has reported on the association between community-level sodium intake and CVD or mortality.