Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. But when these bean-shaped organs sustain damage or are thrown off balance — perhaps by heavy salt intake — both your blood pressure and your heart may feel the repercussions.
Your kidneys filter more than quarts of blood each day. They pull toxins and unwanted fluid from cells throughout the body, then send them to the bladder. Eating too much salt can make it harder for your kidneys to remove fluid, which then builds up in your system and increases your blood pressure. Over time, excessive salt intake can lead to high blood pressure hypertension , which stiffens and narrows the blood vessels.
Blood and oxygen flow to key organs decreases. So the heart tries harder to pump blood throughout the body, which further increases blood pressure. Unchecked hypertension can also damage the artery walls, which begin to collect fat, leading to heart disease and potentially heart attack or stroke.
Laffin says. Most often it doesn't come out of a shaker, but is hidden in the foods you eat. But is it really bad for your heart to eat too much, or is that just a concern for people with certain risk factors? There's been some debate on this topic, even among members of the scientific community. The data for an effect on cardiovascular disease are somewhat more controversial, she says, but in general, the bulk of research does seem to link lower sodium intake with both lower blood pressure and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
To continue reading this article, you must log in. Already a member? Login ». As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
Thanks for visiting. Don't miss your FREE gift. Sign up to get tips for living a healthy lifestyle, with ways to fight inflammation and improve cognitive health , plus the latest advances in preventative medicine, diet and exercise , pain relief, blood pressure and cholesterol management, and more. Food manufacturing companies and restaurants that adopt the targets will lower the amount of sodium in their foods to meet the new targets. That means healthier foods for you and millions of other consumers.
The science behind sodium reduction is clear. Significant evidence links excess sodium intake with high blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and heart failure.
While some newer research questions the link between sodium and health problems, the connection is well-established. The newer research adds to a larger discussion that has evolved over the last few years about salt intake but does not replace the existing evidence. Much of the research that questions sodium intake and health problems relies on flawed data, including inaccurate measurements of sodium intake and an overemphasis on studying sick people rather than the general population.
Often, the studies with paradoxical findings are poorly designed to examine the relationship between sodium intake and the health outcome of interest. The American Heart Association published a Science Advisory in February that discussed the problems with many of the studies that question how sodium is related to heart disease. One estimate suggested that if the U. Another estimate projected that achieving this goal would reduce CVD deaths by anywhere from , to nearly 1.
Written by American Heart Association editorial staff and reviewed by science and medicine advisers. See our editorial policies and staff. Eat Smart. American Heart Association Cookbooks. Nutrition Basics.
0コメント