Dietary Sodium Intake and Subsequent Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Overweight Adults

Abstract

Observational epidemiologic studies have repeatedly identified an independent, positive relationship between dietary intake of sodium and blood pressure across populations as well as within populations.^1-4 Randomized controlled trials have also demonstrated that reduced sodium intake leads to a reduction in blood pressure in both hypertensive and normotensive persons.^1,5-7 Given that blood pressure level is a strong risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke, a high dietary sodium intake could be predicted to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Indeed, several ecological studies have found a positive relationship between average population dietary sodium intake and mortality due to stroke.^8-11 Animal studies have also indicated that a high-sodium diet increases stroke mortality in Dahl rats and stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats.^12,13 However, several prospective cohort studies have failed to identify a significant association between dietary sodium intake and risk of stroke.^14,15 This may have been due to difficulties in measuring an individual's usual sodium intake or to use of relatively small sample sizes.^14,15