Study challenges benefits of low-sodium diets [View All]

For years, Americans have been cautioned about the potential risks of consuming too much salt. But a team of New York scientists has concluded that a low-sodium diet may do more cardiovascular harm than good for people who are not at high risk for hypertension.

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx say healthy participants in a large government-sponsored clinical trial who restricted daily salt intake to less than 2,300 milligrams were 37 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease.

The finding, reported in the American Journal of Medicine, is at loggerheads with prevailing medical wisdom and government recommendations.

Lead researcher Dr. Hillel Cohen theorizes that low-sodium diets raise the kidney's levels of renin, a protein involved with increasing blood pressure when sodium levels are low. Cohen also theorizes that low-sodium diets set the stage for diabetes by encouraging insulin resistance.