Letter: 'Salt-Is-Good' Story Was Not Good
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I feel that it is very unwise to publish articles like the one in the March Shuttle, “Go Ahead and Shake It: For Most of Us, Salt Is Good”
In an NPR story about this issue:
www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/04/03/298745563/time-to-relax-the-sodi...
it was noted that Niels Graudal, an author of the cited meta-analysis, agrees with the overwhelming evidence that lowering sodium can help people with hypertension, or chronically high blood pressure, lower their blood pressure. It added that Grudal does argue that “in people with normal blood pressure, there is no effect, or maybe a small effect of sodium reduction on blood pressure.”
And in commenting on the meta-analysis, Lawrence Appel, who directs the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, told NPR: “There is no credible evidence that a low-sodium intake, in the recommended range, is harmful.”
Appel says the bottom line is this: In order to improve heart health, we have to improve blood pressure control. And “lowering sodium intake is key to achieving this goal.”
Given that high blood pressure is widespread, and given the choice between health advice in the Shuttle and the opinion of Lawrence Appel, I will go with the dude from Hopkins. I feel that it would be best if the Shuttle were to avoid appearing to take a side in complicated medical issues.
Mike Frumer, Weavers Way Member