Hat tip to Rick Lippin MD

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.