Change Your Salt to Improve Your Heart?
In a rural China study, heart health improved by switching to a salt substitute. Researchers followed over 20,000 participants for nearly five years, comparing those who sprinkled their food with a salt substitute (partially potassium chloride) to those who stuck with regular table salt. The results? Pretty remarkable.
The salt substitute group experienced significantly fewer:
And they even had a longer lifespan! ??
While the benefits of reducing sodium and increasing potassium are already well-established, this study stands out for its sheer scale and duration. It's one of the largest and longest studies of its kind, and the magnitude of the risk reduction observed is hard to dismiss. Importantly, researchers didn't find an uptick in dangerous side effects from the increased potassium, a frequent concern, particularly for individuals with kidney issues.
A pinch of caution: The study was "open-label," meaning participants were aware of the type of salt they used. This knowledge could have influenced the results (think placebo effect). However, the impressive sample size and duration lend considerable weight to the findings.
The Takeaway: This research adds to a growing mountain of evidence suggesting that swapping NaCl with KCl alternative could be a simple way to keep your heart healthy.
Study Source: Neal B, Wu Y, Feng X, et al. Effect of Salt Substitution on Cardiovascular Events and Death. N Engl J Med. 2021;385(12):1067-1077. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2105675
Thanks to Nicolas Verhoeven, PhD and his wonderful puns from his recent Physionic video for inspiring this article.
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Initially, I found potassium chloride objectionable, but as the taste of salt has become ingrained, I now like potassium chloride better. It does have a profound effect on blood pressure, especially coupled with magnesium- because Mg deficiencies run rampant in the U.S. I even use potassium bicarbonate in cooking as a leavening agent instead of sodium bicarbonate- a word of caution though, you really need to track how much you are getting because large doses of sodium cause a little fluid retention in some people but large doses of potassium will level you. I try not to go over 6000 mg of potassium a day from all sources.
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