Optimal sodium is 3-5g/day and potassium above 2g/day

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- in order to minimize the risk of cardio-vascular disease. This is based on thew recent study:
"Joint association of urinary sodium and potassium excretion with cardiovascular events and mortality: prospective cohort study", by Martin O’Donnell et al., BMJ 2019; 364

These guidelines are significantly higher than the existing WHO recommendations.

Fig 3

Heat map of risk for composite of cardiovascular events or death showing lowest risk in region of moderate sodium intake 3-5 g/day and higher potassium intake and highest risk in region of extremes of sodium excretion and low potassium excretion. The reference hazard for these hazard ratios was set at a value of sodium daily excretion/intake of 5.00 g and potassium daily excretion/intake of 2.25 g (median excretion of sodium and potassium), marked as X. The overlaid lines represent joint distribution quartiles; each region contains a quarter of the analysed participants. r=0.34

salt and cardiovascular risk debunked

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It was a fake theory! Fake - I like this word.

A Canadian study, just published in The Lancet:
Urinary sodium excretion, blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and mortality: a community-level prospective epidemiological cohort study
Andrew Menteet al., VOLUME 392, ISSUE 10146, P496-506, AUGUST 11, 2018

Quote:

The association between mean sodium intake and major cardiovascular events showed significant deviations from linearity (p=0.043) due to a significant inverse association in the lowest tertile of sodium intake (lowest tertile <4.43 g/day, mean intake 4.04 g/day, range 3.42-4.43; change -1.00 events per 1000 years,...

Sodium intake was associated with cardiovascular disease and strokes only in communities where mean intake was greater than 5 g/day.

Halite (rock salt) from the Wieliczka salt mine,

Note: "inverse" association means that lower sodium INCREASES the rate of disease. In this case the cutoff threshold for the inverse relation is about 4g per day. The recommended daily dose of sodium by the fake (I love it) medical authorities is about 2g/day. Also, the usage of the unit "minus one event per 1000 years" has to be interpreted such that statistically there is one event less than the average, per 1000 patients per year rather than having to wait 1000 years for one patient event.

Read also here:

Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study

Quote:

The study suggests that very low levels of salt could lead to more heart attacks and suggests that moderate salt consumption may be protective.
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The World Health Organization recommends cutting sodium intake to no more than 2g a day - the equivalent of 5g of salt - because of the link to increased blood pressure, which is in turn implicated in stroke.

Low-salt diet increases insulin resistance in healthy subjects

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Interesting study:


Low-salt diet increases insulin resistance in healthy subjects.
Garg R1, Williams GH, Hurwitz S, Brown NJ, Hopkins PN, Adler GK., Metabolism. 2011 Jul;60(7)

From Wiki Salt

Quote:

Abstract
Low-salt (LS) diet activates the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone and sympathetic nervous systems, both of which can increase insulin resistance (IR). We investigated the hypothesis that LS diet is associated with an increase in IR in healthy subjects. Healthy individuals were studied after 7 days of LS diet (urine sodium < 20 mmol/d) and 7 days of high-salt (HS) diet (urine sodium > 150 mmol/d) in a random order. Insulin resistance was measured after each diet and compared statistically, unadjusted and adjusted for important covariates. One hundred fifty-two healthy men and women, aged 39.1 ± 12.5 years (range, 18-65) and with body mass index of 25.3 ± 4.0 kg/m(2), were included in this study. Mean (SD) homeostasis model assessment index was significantly higher on LS compared with HS diet (2.8 ± 1.6 vs 2.4 ± 1.7, P < .01). Serum aldosterone (21.0 ± 14.3 vs 3.4 ± 1.5 ng/dL, P <  .001), 24-hour urine aldosterone (63.0 ± 34.0 vs 9.5 ± 6.5 μg/d, P < .001), and 24-hour urine norepinephrine excretion (78.0 ± 36.7 vs 67.9 ± 39.8 μg/d, P < .05) were higher on LS diet compared with HS diet. Low-salt diet was significantly associated with higher homeostasis model assessment index independent of age, sex, blood pressure, body mass index, serum sodium and potassium, serum angiotensin II, plasma renin activity, serum and urine aldosterone, and urine epinephrine and norepinephrine. Low-salt diet is associated with an increase in IR [insulin resistance]. The impact of our findings on the pathogenesis of diabetes and cardiovascular disease needs further investigation.

Study contradicts official guidelines promoting low salt intake

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Another mainstream medical theory bites the dust! Just like with the cholesterol-and-fat bull..t in the past - it will be interesting to find out what has gone wrong and who did it!   :)

Higher sodium intake associated with lower blood pressure.

PUBLIC RELEASE: 25-APR-2017
Low-sodium diet might not lower blood pressure
Findings from large, 16-year study contradict sodium limits in Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Quotes:

Chicago (April 25, 2017) - A new study that followed more than 2,600 men and women for 16 years found that consuming less sodium wasn't associated with lower blood pressure. The new findings call into question the sodium limits recommended by the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Lynn L. Moore, DSc, associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, will present the new research at the American Society for Nutrition Scientific Sessions and annual meeting during the Experimental Biology 2017 meeting, to be held April 22-26 in Chicago.

"We saw no evidence that a diet lower in sodium had any long-term beneficial effects on blood pressure," said Moore. "Our findings add to growing evidence that current recommendations for sodium intake may be misguided."

Eating too little salt may increase your risk of a heart attack or stroke claims new research

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Daily Mail On-Line article:

Eating too LITTLE salt may INCREASE your risk of a heart attack or stroke, claims controversial new research

Wiki Salt

Nutritional heresy strikes back, some quotes:

The research was carried out by investigators at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences.
They analyzed more than 130,000 people across 49 countries, focusing on whether the relationship between sodium (salt) intake and death, heart disease and stroke differs in people with high blood pressure compared to those with normal blood pressure.
Their findings showed that regardless of whether people have high blood pressure, low-salt intake is linked to a greater incidence of heart attacks, stroke, and deaths compared to average intake.
...

Dr Mente said that this suggests that the majority of individuals in Canada and most countries are consuming the right amount of salt.
He added that targeted salt reduction in those who are most susceptible because of hypertension and high salt consumption may be preferable to a population-wide approach to reducing sodium intake in most countries except those where the average sodium intake is very high, such as parts of central Asia or China.

He added that what is now generally recommended as a healthy daily ceiling for sodium consumption appears to be set too low, regardless of a person's blood pressure level.
'Low sodium intake reduces blood pressure modestly, compared to average intake, but low sodium intake also has other effects, including adverse elevations of certain hormones which may outweigh any benefits,' Dr Mente said.

'The key question is not whether blood pressure is lower with very low salt intake, instead it is whether it improves health.'

Dr Martin O'Donnell, a co-author on the study and an associate clinical professor at McMaster University and National University of Ireland Galway, said: 'This study adds to our understanding of the relationship between salt intake and health, and questions the appropriateness of current guidelines that recommend low sodium intake in the entire population.'

The study was funded from more than 50 sources, including the PHRI, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

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Reference:

A.Mente et al., The Lancet, 20/05/2016, "Associations of urinary sodium excretion with cardiovascular events in individuals with and without hypertension: a pooled analysis of data from four studies"


Please note that the medical authorities have again been caught issuing inaccurate, perhaps harmful nutritional guidelines for half a century based on what appears to be the "treating the numbers" paradigm and experts' opinions rather than based on science. Is nobody responsible for the misconduct?

Salt intake not correlated with mortality

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New study and one more medical myth demolished:

Dietary Sodium Content, Mortality, and Risk for Cardiovascular Events in Older Adults

Wiki

Quote:

Results  The mean (SD) age of participants was 73.6 (2.9) years, 51.2% were female, 61.7% were of white race, and 38.3% were black. After 10 years, 881 participants had died, 572 had developed CVD, and 398 had developed HF. In adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models, sodium intake was not associated with mortality (hazard ratio [HR] per 1 g, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.98-1.09; P = .27).