Hypertension Highlights Dietary Salt Intake, Salt Sensitivity, and Cardiovascular Health

The controversial issue of the relationship between dietaryNaCl (referred to as “salt ” in this article) intake and health was framed nicely in the superb review by Prof Eberhard Ritz.1 When salt was not readily available, it was a relatively essential commodity, but in the modern world salt has become plentiful, and it is actually difficult to achieve a low salt intake without exerting a significant amount of effort.2 One of the effects of higher salt intake is increased blood pressure, which was clearly illustrated in chimpanzees fed with a diet containing 35 versus 120 mmol of sodium per day. In contrast, after providing a diet containing248 mmol of sodium per day for 2 years, subsequent reduction in daily dietary salt intake to 126 mmol reduced blood pressure compared with animals that were continued on the increased salt diet.3 Other than affecting blood pressure, excess salt in the modern diet is increasingly recognized as an additiona