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Medical Video: The Latest on Salt & High Blood Pressure - Dr. Sam Daya
You might know that consuming too much sodium (salt) is at risk for high blood pressure in adults. What about children?
In a study recorded in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that young children who consume too much salt, like adults, are also at risk of suffering from hypertension, the root cause of various heart diseases and premature death. Studies show that the risk of hypertension is found to be greatest in 37% of American children who are overweight or obese.
The experts reviewed diet and blood pressure in 6,235 American children aged 8-18 years who participated in a national survey on health and nutrition in 2003 - 2008. These children were interviewed by experts on what they had eaten in 24 hours . Furthermore, their blood pressure is measured 3 times at different times to ensure the accuracy of reading the results.
On average, participants consumed about 3,387 mg of salt in one day — more or less the same as adults. (The current guide to nutritional needs recommends children and adults consume salt no more than 2,300 per day). Older children tend to consume salt more than younger children. The more salt consumed, the higher the results of their blood pressure scanning.
Children with the highest levels of sodium in their bodies, have a 2-fold risk of suffering from pre-hypertensive symptoms or hypertension compared to other children who consume less salt. Furthermore, children who have the highest sodium levels and also include obesity or being overweight have a three-fold risk of hypertension, when compared to the lowest sodium group.
Concluded by the chair of the study Quanhe Yang, the combination of excessive sodium consumption and overweight has a multiplier effect on blood pressure, compared to if it has only one factor. Quanhe Yang is a senior researcher in the Department of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention at the CDC.
Hypertension is a major factor in heart disease and stroke in adults, indicating that a generation of children may be more vulnerable to this condition than before.
Several previous studies also found an association between increased sodium consumption in children with high blood pressure, but none included the effect of body weight as a calculation variable. It is important to be able to understand how sodium and overweight can affect blood pressure, according to Yang, if considering the percentage of children who are overweight and obese the problem is more than 1/3 of the child population in America.
The good news is, a balanced diet by limiting sodium consumption in children is considered to have a large impact on their blood pressure, leading to a reduced risk of suffering from hypertension, compared to running a weight-loss program or not abstaining from salt.
"If we can reduce sodium consumption, this will reach more than just the expected reduction in cases of hypertension due to synergistic effects," Yang said.
