Salt Contributes to Resistant High Blood Pressure

People with elevated readings should restrict their salt intake, experts say

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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FRIDAY, Sept. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Too much salt can contribute to resistant high blood pressure despite taking several medications to control it, University of Alabama researchers report.

High blood pressure is called resistant hypertension when blood pressure remains above goal despite their taking three medications to lower it. High blood pressure that is under control, but requires four or more medications to treat it, is also considered resistant to treatment.

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"High-salt diet contributes importantly to resistant-to-treatment hypertension and high volume and vascular resistance may contribute to resistant hypertension," said lead researcher Dr. Eduardo Pimenta, now at the Department of Hypertension and Nephrology at the Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Details of the study were expected to be presented Friday at the American Heart Association's Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research, in Atlanta.

For the study, Pimenta's team randomly assigned 13 patients with resistant high blood pressure, to a high- or low-salt diet. These patients were all taking at least three blood pressure medications.

The researchers found that patients on the low-salt diet saw their systolic blood pressure drop by 22.6 mmHg, and their diastolic blood pressure dropped by 9.2 mmHg, compared with people on high-salt diet.

In addition, body weight, as well as brain natriuretic peptide levels and thoracic fluid content, two measures indicating fluid reduction, also significantly increased among those on the low-salt type compared with those on the high salt, the researchers found.

"Patients with resistant hypertension, in spite of three or more antihypertensive drugs, are specially salt-sensitive," Pimenta said. "The blood pressure reduction achieved with low-salt diet was higher than some antihypertensive drugs."

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