Canadian cardiovascular performance improves significantly
Canada is currently in the midst of a national initiative aimed at reducing the sodium content of the diets of Canadians. It has appointed a Multi-stakeholder Working Group on Dietary Sodium Reduction (Sodium Working Group) to oversee this process. The compulsion to reduce sodium in Canada is being driven by the international group of advocates belonging to WASH (World Action on Salt and Health) who believe that significant salt reduction will reduce population-wide blood pressure to a point where many thousands of lives will be saved. These assertions are based on the speculations of some blood pressure experts – not on any scientifically derived clinical data. In fact, there are many blood pressure experts who disagree with this notion, but despite this, the Canadian Government has embarked upon a journey that appears to have only one outcome – a reduction in salt consumption.
The Salt Institute has taken part in some of the meetings of this Sodium Working Group and has urged a full consideration of all the scientific evidence and has cautioned prudence in implementing population-wide salt reduction programs since the data on health outcomes clearly does not warrant such an approach.
Today, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published a special report on “National trends in rates of death and hospital admissions related to acute myocardial infarction, heart failure and stroke, 1994–2004, ” by J.V. Tu et al. The report, also covered on “theHeart ” website, states that the rates of death from cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart-failure mortality rates, have significantly decreased in Canada over a recent 10-year study period. From 1994 to 2004, cardiovascular disease mortality declined 30%, while the rate of myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart-failure mortality decreased 38.1%, 28.2%, and 23.5%, respectively. This precipitous decline has taken place without any reduction in the consumption of salt. In fact, in a recent Salt and Health Newsletter , the Salt Institute compared Canada’s excellent cardiovascular performance over the last 30 years, without salt reduction, to Finland’s – the only country to achieve significant salt reductions during the same time period. The data, taken from the WHO Global Cardiovascular Infobase, shows how much better Canada fared over Finland. This latest report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal confirms this fact
Since Canada has done so well in reducing cardiovascular disease outcomes, it brings the Canadian sodium reduction initiative into serious question. The salt reductionists' dire predictions on salt and cardiovascular heath appear to be incorrect because Canada is doing very well indeed. In fact, today’s report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal states that, despite Canada’s great overall cardiovascular performance, more women than men are dying of cardiovascular disease, particularly elderly women. As it happens, according to a very recent Statistics Canada report, “Sodium consumption at all ages ,” women eat far less salt than men and elderly women in particular, are the one group that consumes the least amount of salt and is closest to the Government’s sodium intake goals – yet their cardiovascular performance is the worst of all Canadians.
Perhaps, it is time for the Government to actually read and respect its own data and acknowledge when it is well off.
