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Low salt diet actually could be harmful to your health, new study suggests LONDON (March 12, 1998 11:42 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - Low salt diets actually could be hazardous to your health, a new study warned on Friday. Contrary to the common belief that eating too much salt can lead to heart attacks and strokes, lowering your sodium intake may actually be harmful, doctors at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York said. "Cancel current recommendations to reduce salt intake, and wait for more data," epidemiology and social medicine professor Michael Alderman said in a statement. In a study published in the Lancet medical journal, Alderman and his team analyzed the diets of 11,000 people who took part in the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that started in 1971 in the United States. "Our survey provides no support for recommendations to lower sodium as a goal of dietary policy," Alderman said. "Those recommendations are based on data indicating that less salt means lower blood pressure, which is true for some but not all people. "Moreover, there are lots of ways to lower blood pressure, and not all are good for you; indeed, our study suggests that lowering sodium may actually be harmful." Ironically, Alderman and his team found that mortality was inversely related to salt intake. The more salt people reported eating, the less likely they were to die from cardiovascular or other diseases. When the team looked at salt intake in relation to total calories the results were even more interesting. At each level of salt intake people who consumed fewer calories were more likely to die than those who consumed more calories. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in most developed countries and high blood pressure is a major risk factor. Specialists, convinced that high salt intake increased blood pressure, had advised people to cut down on it. An earlier study, also published in the Lancet, linked a high salt diet to osteoporosis, stomach cancer, asthma and fluid retention. But Alderman is not alone in his beliefs. Canadian hypertension expert Alexander Logan reached similar conclusions in research published in The Journal of the American Medical Association nearly two years ago. He concluded that the harmful effects of restricting salt intake were not fully appreciated, and doctors should not assume a low-salt diet was harmless. Alderman said the relationship between salt intake and other dietary components may be so complex that across-the-board guidelines may never be possible. Copyright 1998 Nando.net Copyright 1998 Reuters News Service janet paterson 50-9 / sinemet-selegiline-prozac almonte-ontario-canada / [log in to unmask]