Restricting salt won’t save your heart

Consider this recent discovery a late Christmas present from me to you: As it turns out, salt isn’t so bad for your heart after all.

I know, I know… I’ve been telling you that for years now. But the folks over at the American Heart Association still haven’t gotten the memo.

And as you may have noticed, I celebrate any new research that busts this dangerous myth with the hopes that maybe — just maybe — the powers-that-be will finally pull their heads out of the sand.

Is this going to be the study that brings them to their senses? Let’s face it — probably not. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s all the more reason to continue getting the word out.

So let’s take a look at the latest findings, shall we?

No “clinically relevant” reasons to cut salt    

After reviewing nine unique studies, including nearly 500 patients, researchers found that there was “no clinically relevant data” supporting the restriction of dietary salt. Lowering salt intake didn’t influence heart-related deaths (or deaths by any cause, for that matter), cardiovascular events, or the risk or length of hospitalization.

To be fair, this study only looked at salt restriction in patients with heart failure. But let me remind you that only a small fraction of hypertension cases are salt-sensitive to begin with. (Despite this, conventional doctors continue to dole out recommendations for patients to go on low-salt diets…)

As a result, the study authors concluded that there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t cut your salt intake. Especially since it hasn’t been shown to “minimize complications or improve outcomes.”

Well, I beg to differ. And it’s not just me. Plenty of published research shows that restricting your salt intake can indeed be lethal.

So discounting the importance of salt due to the fact that it doesn’t offer any clinical benefit is a pretty big problem, any way you look at it.

Unproven benefit, unknown harm

As is typical when it comes to nutritional guidelines, official recommendations are a bit all over the place when it comes to reducing salt intake. And without clear evidence for the recommendation in the first place, it’s no wonder why.

Nevertheless, the American Heart Association has positioned itself on the front lines of the war against sodium. And the FDA has taken the fight a step further, launching the National Salt Reduction Initiative — which urges the food industry to slash the sodium content from their products. All in an effort to dwindle all Americans down to a rock bottom level of 2,300 mg (or about one teaspoon) per day.

So the fact that this latest study’s authors wrote the following speaks volumes:

“Clinicians and policymakers should acknowledge the lack of evidence for this intervention in patients who may be reluctant to restrict salt intake and the social and economic feasibility of achieving reduced-salt diets in wider populations.”

Translation: What, exactly, are the AHA and FDA hoping to accomplish with their absurd crusade? And at what cost to the public?

The medical community needs to take a step back from their unsupported and potentially harmful insistence on rigorous sodium restriction. They are exercising uncertain logic, in support of an unproven benefit (just as they did with dietary fiber).

“First, do no harm” is one of the cardinal rules of medicine. And while mainstream “experts” may stubbornly insist that salt restriction doesn’t hurt, the actual research suggests that’s simply not true.

So here’s my recommendation: If you want real, science-backed advice for keeping your heart healthy, check out my Ultimate Heart-Protection Protocol. In it, I bust more mainstream heart health myths fed to you for the past several decades, and give you a science-backed roadmap on how to get on the path to better cardiovascular health. Click here to learn more about my online learning tool, or to enroll today.

Source:

medscape.com/viewarticle/904603