Can average dietary salt restriction assist sufferers with hypertension?

Outcomes from a medical trial printed within the Journal of Inside Medication reveal a number of well being advantages of average salt restriction in sufferers on normal medical remedy for major aldosteronism.

Main aldosteronism—a situation by which the adrenal glands make an excessive amount of of the hormone aldosterone—is a typical reason for secondary hypertension. The mix of aldosterone extra and excessive dietary salt consumption leaves affected sufferers with the next threat of heart problems than sufferers with hypertension from different causes. Mineralocorticoid antagonists are the primary remedy of major aldosteronism, however these medicines don’t fully normalize sufferers’ elevated cardiovascular threat.

As a result of elevated aldosterone and excessive dietary salt consumption have detrimental results on sufferers’ well being, investigators puzzled whether or not salt restriction would possibly profit sufferers. Within the non-randomized single-arm Salt CONNtrol trial that included 41 sufferers, average salt restriction decreased blood stress and depressive signs with out detectable antagonistic results.

“The research reveals {that a} average dietary salt restriction is possible, when mixed with a devoted smartphone app for steady motivation, and has a robust antihypertensive impact in sufferers with major aldosteronism,” stated corresponding creator Christian Adolf, MD, of Ludwig Maximilian College of Munich, in Germany. “Our findings will assist to enhance take care of sufferers with major aldosteronism and, probably, additionally for subgroups of sufferers with important hypertension.”