Can a small amount of salt consumed every other day increase blood pressure?

Question

A family member of mine compains about high blood pressure but doesn't seem to understand the correlation between salt intake and an increase in blood pressure. Almost every day she consumes about a teaspoon of salt but doesn't see this as a problem. Isn't a teaspoon of salt enough to increase blood pressure? and for someone like her, who likes salty foods, what is the maximum amount of salt, if any, that can be consumed daily without increasing blood pressure?

Also, I'm wondering - does sugar increase blood pressure?

Answer 1

Per the American Heart Association, Physicians often recommend keeping salt intake below 2,300 milligrams (mg) per day for most people. (This is about one teaspoon of salt).

But....what other things is your family member eating? Canned foods and a lot of processed foods ARE LOADED with sodium. Most people are not taking the teaspoon of salt from the salt shaker itself, it is from the other foods such as canned and processed foods such as canned soup, canned meats and fish, ham, bacon, sausage, instant cooked cereals, prepackaged frozen dinners, pretzels, potato chips, olives, cheeses, pickles, salad dressing, fast foods, to name a few.

Look for low salt or low sodium items when grocery shopping. Read those labels. You will be surprised how much salt (sodium) is there.

Now about your sugar question: Yes it can - see this link and look at # 115 - It says sugar can increase high blood pressure in obese people, don't know if your family member is obese or not so don't know if this applies to their situation: http://rheumatic.org/sugar.htm

Also alcohol increases blood pressure also, but I don't know if this applies to your family member or not.

Click this link regarding salt intake and other information if you wish:
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=336

Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Answer 2

If she already had high blood pressure any amount of salt is simply going to make it worse.

She needs to spend some time (like two months) on the lowest possible intake of sodium she possibly can and see how close to normal she can get her BP. Then she slowly and carefully can start to add small amount (grams) of sodium back into her diet to find what he own personal tolerance for sodium is.

Sugar isn't so much a factor in high BP but obesity is and sugar and carbohydrates in to high an amount is a huge part of high BP.

When anyone thing in the body is off there are usually multiple causes as well as multiple ways of bringing them back into line.

Answer 3

National academy of sciences recommended 1200-1500mg sodium a day or about several teaspoons of ketchup. The more sodium intake the higher dose of anti-hypertension pills need. It takes a while to adjust sodium carving, can use garlic vegetable salt instead. Sugar can also increase BP to diabetic people.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002415.htm