Low-Sodium Salt Helps Reduce Blood Pressure, Say Indian Researchers

A study conducted by researchers of the George Institute for Global Health in the Indian rural areas has revealed that replacing common salt that people regularly consume with a salt substitute could play a vital role in reducing their blood pressure.

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It is no secret that excess salt intake causes high blood pressure which is one of the primary reasons people experience cardiovascular diseases. And since most salt that enters our body is through the food we eat on a daily basis, researchers wanted to understand if reduced sodium-salt substitutes could help lower blood pressure.

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This study (reported first by India Science Wire) was conducted by The George Institute India's research fellow Sudhir Raj Thout, in the Siddipet region of Telangana State involving 502 volunteers who were suffering from hypertension from 7 different villages.

The volunteers were randomised with some getting regular salt that possessed 100% sodium chloride while some received the salt substitute which had 70% sodium chloride and 30% potassium chloride blended together.

The test subjects were asked to completely replace the salt at home with the ones provided by the researchers. The results that came at the end of the study were truly surprising.

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Sudhir Raj Thout revealed that the first big change researchers saw was in the systolic blood pressure from baseline to three months, decreasing average pressure by around 4.6 units in the salt substitute group compared to regular salt groups. They also saw a change in diastolic blood pressure, 24-hour urinary biomarkers. Moreover, participants self-reported use and satisfaction for Indian cooking with the salt substitutes provided by researchers.

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Jason Wu, Associate Professor and Scientia Fellow at The George Institute, and supervisor of the study explains, ¡°Our data suggest that using reduced-sodium, added-potassium salt substitute to replace regular salt for home cooking will likely be an effective and scalable intervention for blood pressure control in rural India.¡±

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Wu added, ¡°As none of the participants were aware of the existence of reduced-sodium salt at the beginning of the study, this suggests policymakers should consider supporting increased access to, and education about the use of such salt substitutes for hypertensive patients in India.¡±