Modest salt intake reduction for 4 weeks or longer decreases blood pressure.

Commentary on: He FJ, Li J, Macgregor GA. Effect of longer-term modest salt reduction on blood pressure. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2013;4:CD004937 Hypertension is a primary cause of death and disability.1 Despite great strides in achieving BP targets, the majority of patients remain undertreated. Current recommendations include the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet and sodium reduction (6 g/day salt).1 DASH-sodium is the sequel to the DASH study, as salt was not a factor originally.2 Reductions in the BP by decreasing salt, while not as impressive as with DASH, were still substantial. A reduction of 4 g/day of salt for …