Sodium and excessiveness of it is one of the main factors increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke in Americans. The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between the amount of salt consumed and cardiovascular disease or stroke. To do this study, researchers used a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies done between 1966 through 2008. They used data sources from Medline, Embase, Psychinfo, Cochrane Library, AMED, and CINAHL. The average salt intake recommendation is around 5-6 grams, but most Americans exceed 6 grams of salt on a daily basis. This has resulted in a correlation between high salt intake and high blood pressure, leading to cardiovascular diseases. Suggestions have been made about …show more content…
Subgroup analyses were used to find correaltions between study characteristics and risk of cardiovascular disease to find likely causes of heterogeneity. Salt intake was assessed by a 24 hour urine excretion, food frequency questionnaire, 24 hour dietary recall, and questionnaire. Overall, in fourteen cohorts a relationship between salt intake and cardiovascular disease was found. The pooled analysis represents an association between the increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a greater salt intake. In ten out of fourteen cohorts, a direct association was discovered between salt consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease (with an even higher risk in six of them). Sources of heterogeneity include age, sex, method of assessment of sodium intake, baseline blood pressure or hypertension status, baseline body mass index (BMI) or body weight, length of followup, dose-response analysis, and time trend (year of publication). For age, no association was found between salt intake and cardiovascular disease risk. Three studies showed data of a correlation between sex, salt intake, and risk of …show more content…
Heart disease are the number one cause of death among those aged over sixty and the second most cause of those aged between fifteen and fifty-nine. The World Health Organization attributed forty-nine percent of heart diseases to high blood pressure, which can be caused by consuming an excessive amount of sodium. It is logical to assume that people will benefit largely if they reduce their amount of salt intake therefore resulting in a lower rate of cardiovascular disease. For cardiovascular disease outcomes, different analyses for males and females show that their associations are consistent and not drastically different between the two sexes. When it comes to blood pressure, the correlation between salt intake and risk of cardiovascular disease seems independent from the effect of extra body weight in 9 out of 13 studies. 2 studies reported an interaction between obesity and salt consumption on the risk of heart problems. According to the World Heart Federation, a reduction in population salt intake could stop nearly 3 million deaths from cardiovascular disease each year. In conclusion, with a dose dependent association, higher sodium consumption is associated with a significantly higher incidence of total