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Mrs. Bremner is in Tampa FL this week attending the American Heart Association (AHA) Epidemiology meeting. And having a good time too as she has texted me (don’t have TOO good a time, Mrs. Bremner!). The most inspiring talk she has seen is about salt and health, delivered by Dr. GA MacGregor from the University of London, someone she described as a VERY inspirational speaker (hopefully not TOO inspiring, Mrs. Bremner!).
Our daughter told me that she doesn’t like it when I call her mother Mrs. Bremner. She thinks it is demeaning. And sounds bad. For those readers who haven’t caught on (Duh!), my wife kept her own name when we married (she’s not REALLY Mrs. Bremner, SORRY!), which is entirely reasonable since we are academics and she already had a string of papers under her belt when we married that she would lose ‘credit’ for if she changed her name.
That is fine and good but I wasn’t prepared for the fact that she would give our first born the name ‘Vaccarino Bremner’ as a last name. I wasn’t around when they gave her the form to fill out the application for the birth certificate. I guess it serves us guys right for not being *around*. It was a little awkward though when we went to Mexico and had a hard time getting into the country cuz her passport didn’t match her plane ticket. That is when we had to break the news to our little cherubin that she wasn’t REALLY a Bremner!
Sob!
I named my son James Douglas Bremner III but when he actually popped out of Mrs Bremner’s (sic) belly he looked more Mexican than Scottish so I had to acknowledge that the Sicilian genes had wiped out the last trace of the brave Scottish freedom fighter from the family line. As do I. Mrs. Bremner suggested that we should ALL change our names to ‘Vaccarino Bremner’.
Doy!
Anyway/hoo back to salt. Excessive salt intake in the diet is the leading cause for increases in high blood pressure (hypertension). And increases in untreated hypertension are a leading cause for heart and kidney disease. Salt was originally introduced into the diet in China 5,000 years ago as a way to preserve food during the winter. Unfortunately we have a natural proclivity toward salt, and our current consumption of salt is 50 times what is was 10,000 years ago. Salt tends to result in a retention of water in the kidnies, which leads to high blood pressure. Countries who have taken a concerted effort to lower salt in the diet, like Japan and the United Kingdom, have seen a drop in hypertension and heart disease. Most salt in the US diet is from processed foods and from soft drinks. Salt improves the taste of tasteless food, prolongs the life of food, and retains the weight of processed foods, all of which are advantage to food companies, so they tend to put a lot of salt in food.
Multiple studies show a correlation between salt consumption and high blood pressure
Data above is from the INTERSALT trial. The data is conclusive that salt contributes to high blood pressure.
Several studies have shown that populations who migrate from countries where salt is not available to those where it is available have an increase in hypertension.
Stay away from processed foods, the “center of the grocery store”, and remember that canned foods are high in sodium. Eating out at fast foods restaurants will get you a high sodium hit. Cook your own meals whenever possible.
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Hmm interesting graph, but surprisingly unconvincing. Surely the correlation is dependent almost entirely on the lowest 4 points. The rest looks pretty random. And of course it is a correlation so had the usual problem of causality.
What a pity it is that we know next to nothing about diet and health.
I’ve never understood the resistance to using both couple’s surname. But then, I do like things unconventional- keeps things interesting.
I’m a little surprised Na excretion is the value used.
David, that is a good point. I wonder if anyone has ever done a randomized trial. Vegetables versus cheeseburgers?
Anyway/hoo is definitely an improvement over the simple hoo, but I’m wondering if it is better to hyphenate rather than a forward slash?
Good point Dave. David, I looked at the paper again (link is above) and the Salt Institute (industry) made a similar point but they claim it was significant even with removal of the bottom four (data points refer to countries, I think). Also the paper cites several positive randomized controlled trials.
Having just finished an extremely salty slice of pizza, I find none of this convincing, there’s no evidence to support these findings and the graph is pure conjecture and furth…ack! Sorry, my left arm is killing me. As I was saying, there’s nothing to support this. Anchovy anyone?
It is very easy to prove the relationship of salt to blood pressure if you have a BP cuff at home. If I stop eating all processed foods and add no salt (and no soy sauce or other salty additives) my BP drops significantly in a week of eating no salt . I’d bet just about anyone who had the self-discipline to eat no salt for a week could prove the relationship.
The level of 2,000mg sodium that is frequently recommended as “low salt” does not work for the above experiment!! My BP does not lower at 2,000mg.
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Do some taste-testing. Compare standard table salt with salt harvested from the ocean. You’ll never go back to harsh table salt that also contains “softeners.”
We need salt. (Many health-conscious women followed blanket orders to reduce salt, and they experienced adverse health effects from it.) I prefer healthy salt, though.
I wonder which name is mispelled more often — Bremner or Vaccarino. I’m thinking the former (having mispelled it myself once or twice).
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Here is a meta-analysis of trials of salt reduction and blood pressure:
He FJ, MacGregor GA. Effect of modest salt reduction on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized trials. Implications for public health. J Hum Hypertens 2002; 16: 761–770.
Salt is NaCl. ALL of it ultimately came from the ocean whether it was crystallized directly from current seawater or whether it was mined from salt that crystallized from seawater many years ago. Both recently crystallized and longer-ago crystallized are still NaCl. There is no such thing as “heathy” NaCl. The students I teach dissolved table salt in water and grew beautiful, large cubic NaCl salt crystals in science lab from ordinary table salt. Chemically NaCl is NaCl.
I’ve heard decreasing salt intake only effects 1/3 of people with high blood pressure…though I’ve done no actual research so I cannot document or attest to the veracity of that claim…
I have the opposite problem…terribly low blood pressure…I keep meaning to try drinking a 1/4 tsp of salt a day mixed in water…and I’ve always liberally salted stuff on purpose, but lately the blood pressure is dropping…and so the idea to “supplement” with salt popped up.