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Do low-salt diets improve health outcomes?

Surprisingly, only fifteen studies have examined this crucial question, despite many public health agencies' encouragement of universal sodium (salt) diets.  
Here are those studies:

Kagan, A. et. al.  “Dietary and other risk factors for stroke in Hawaiian Japanese men.”  Stroke, 1985; 16:390-396.
Alderman, M.H. et al. “Low urinary sodium associated with greater risk of myocardial infarction among treated hypertensive men. Hypertension 1995; 25:1144-1152.
Cutler, J.R., Presented May 30, 1997, at American Society of Hypertension annual meeting, San Francisco, CA. (unpublished).
Tunsall-Pedoe.  “Comparison by prediction of 27 factors of coronary heart disease and health in men and women of the Scottish heart health study cohort study.  British Medical Journal, 1997; 315:722-729.  See Table 6, age-adjusted hazard ratios.
Alderman M.H. et al. “Dietary sodium intake and mortality: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I).” Lancet 1998; 351:781-785.
Valkonen, V-P. “Sodium and potassium excretion and the risk of acute myocardial infarction” Presented October 15, 1998 to the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Dallas, TX (unpublished).
Cohen, J.D. presentation to NHLBI Workshop on Sodium and Blood Pressure, January 28, 1999, Bethesda, MD
He, J. et al.  “Dietary sodium intake and subsequent risk of cardiovascular disease in overweight adults.” Journal of the American Medical Association, 1999; 282:2027-2034.
Tuomilehto J. et al. “Urinary sodium excretion and cardiovascular mortality in Finland: a prospective study.”  Lancet 2001; 357:848-51.    Commentary  Letters (requires free registration)
Hooper, L. et al. “Systematic review of long term effects of advice to reduce dietary salt in adults.”  British Medical Journal, 2002; 325:628-636.
Grobbee, D.E. et al. "Sodium and potasium intake and risk of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality: the Rotterdam Study" presented to the 13th European Meeting on Hypertension in Milan, Italy, June 13-17, 2003 (published abstract)
Nagata, C. et al. "Sodium intake and risk of death from stroke in Japanese men and women."  Stroke 2004; 35:1543-1547.
Cohen, H. et al.  "Sodium intake and mortality in the NHANES II follow-up study."  American Journal of Medicine 2006; 119,275.e7-275.e14
Shimazu, T. et al. "Dietary patterns and cardiovascular disease mortality in Japan: a prospective cohort study."  International Journal of Epidemiology 2007; 36:1: 1-10.
Cook, N.R. et al "Long term effects of dietary salt reduction on cardiovascular disease outcomes: observational follow-up of the trials of  hypertension prevention (TOHP)."  British Medical Journal, doi:10.1126/bmj.39147.604896.55 (published 20 April 2007)
Geleijnse, J.M. et al.  "Sodium and potassium intake and risk of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality: the Rotterdam Study."  European Journal of Epidemiology 2007; 10.1007/s10654-007-9186-2.

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