High Blood Pressure Concerns: Will Reducing Salt Intake Help?

Recently, the American Heart Association (AHA) did indeed issue a set of guidelines suggesting that cutting salt intake can indeed impact blood pressure, sometimes dramatically enough to eliminate the need for medication. The effects are most dramatic in those with a familial tendency toward high blood pressure, in people over 50 years old, people with kidney disease, and people of African descent. The AHA recommends that people limit their salt intake to 2400 milligrams a day or less. This amounts to roughly one and one fourth teaspoons of salt, so it's harder than it might sound.

To stick to those guidelines, you will need to severely limit fast food or salty snacks. In addition, beware of specific processed foods such as canned soup or pasta sauce, which can sometimes contain half the recommended daily intake in a single serving. Don't add salt to food that you're preparing; instead, rely on salt-free spices to season food. Vinegar can sometimes work wonders for adding flavors to foods that might otherwise be salted.

If you find you're having trouble limiting salt, consider using a low-salt cookbook. There are a number of excellent choices on the market that offer a wide variety of meal suggestions for all palates.

In many cases, reducing salt intake alone may not be enough to get your blood pressure to a safe level. If you want to further decrease your risk of needing blood pressure medication, you should also eat a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. It can also help to get plenty of exercise and lead an active lifestyle. Further, if there is an underlying health condition - such as kidney disease - contributing to the high blood pressure, it is important to look at that as a factor as well (although reducing salt intake is usually beneficial for the underlying disease in these cases too).

While cutting salt can be a good idea and may hold off a high blood pressure problem, it is always important to work with your doctor and to not undergo self-treatment of a problem in lieu of medical advice. If you are newly diagnosed with high blood pressure, you might want to consider asking your doctor if you can try dietary therapy to lower your levels before resorting to medication, assuming that you are not in a high risk zone for a heart attack.

If you are at risk for heart disease, it is better to take your prescribed medications than risk a heart attack. If your doctor believes your blood pressure is dangerously high, it's possible that you can start taking an antihypertensive medication and then wean off it later when you have adjusted your diet and lifestyle, but this should always be done under a doctor's supervision.