Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University examined data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) which included the medical records of 8,700 adults who were representative of the national population. All were over the age of 30, and none were on a low-salt diet.

Those who had the lowest amounts of sodium in their diet were 80 percent more likely to die from heart disease than the people consuming the highest amount of salt. In addition, the low-salt group’s risk of dying from any cause was 24 percent higher, even after adjusting for risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, and blood pressure. Two earlier NHANES studies had similar findings.

“Our findings suggest that for the general adult population, higher sodium is very unlikely to be independently associated with higher risk of death from CVD or all other causes of death,” says investigator Dr. Hillel W. Cohen, associate professor at Einstein.

Although it may not be time to get out the salt shaker, “Our findings do again raise questions about the usefulness or even safety of universal recommendations for lower salt diets for all individuals, regardless of the blood pressure status or other health characteristics,” says Dr. Cohen.

Source:  Newsmax.com