HSI e-Alert - Salt pleads innocent

Dear Reader,

Finally!

Sooner or later it had to happen. Researchers finally got
around to showing that salt/sodium consumption is NOT the
problem. The real problem is…

Well, I'll let the study speak for itself...

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers
followed the diets and medical records of more than 12,000
adults for an average of about 15 years. Those who had the
highest sodium intake and lowest potassium intake had the
highest risk of dying from a cardiovascular event or
illness.

Subjects who had the lowest ratio of sodium to potassium --
that is, nearly equal consumption of each -- were the least
likely to die of a heart attack or stroke.

And there you have it. Just as Dr. Spreen and I have been
telling you for years: When potassium intake is enough to
balance sodium intake, there's no reason to avoid salt like
some kind of dietary poison.

So now that the mainstream has caught up with this very
simple concept, let's move on to the next important sodium
issue.

CDC researchers? Are you listening? Please conduct a study
to reveal just how thoroughly damaging it can be for
elderly patients to cut their sodium intake as low as it
will go.

A very low sodium blood level is called hyponatraemia. And
it's a condition inflicted on seniors every day by
misinformed doctors and a misinformed media.

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Saving seniors from "senior" symptoms
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If you're in your 70s or 80s and you confide in your doctor
that you're feeling fatigued, your balance isn't so good
anymore, and sometimes you're easily confused, you know
exactly what he's going to tell you.

Something like... "These things are to be expected in
advanced years."

And that's why doctors often miss a diagnosis for
hyponatraemia.

Several years ago, German research showed that a surprising
number of seniors suffer from hyponatraemia. The study
reported that a large majority of the elderly subjects said
they avoided salt based on the popular misconception that
salt use causes high blood pressure.

The fact is, lowering sodium intake may actually INCREASE
risk of heart attack and death.

In three different trials that tested low-sodium diets on
patients with kidney disease and heart failure, results
linked the special diets to higher risk of
hospitalizations, cardiovascular events, and death.

Yeah -- THAT wasn't supposed to happen!

According to Dr. David McCarron -- a nutritionist and
University of California professor -- there is currently no
reliable evidence that backs up the accepted recommendation
to reduce sodium intake for heart health. Dr. McCarron says
the recommendation is based only on opinion and the
demonization of salt by health authorities.

A few years ago, Dr. McCarron wrote, "My view is that it is
very likely that low salt will ultimately prove to be
another public health disaster. There is already sufficient
evidence to suggest that low salt could actually result in
increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

"But the reality is that the international community needs
to commission controlled trials so that we have the
evidence as to whether the current policy is safe and
effective. To do anything less is irresponsible."

So get to it, CDC and other mainstreamers. Bring on those
gold standard studies. Or stop risking patients' health by
telling them to reduce their salt intake based on nothing
more than medical dogma.