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Potassium improves blood pressure in teen girls: New Study

A new study has discovers sodium has no adverse effect, but potassium improves blood pressure in teen girls.

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A new study has discovers sodium has no adverse effect, but potassium improves blood pressure in teen girls.

Eating 3,000 mg per day of salt or more appears to have no adverse effect on blood pressure in adolescent girls, while those girls who consumed 2,400 mg per day or more of potassium had lower blood pressure at the end of adolescence.

The scientific community has historically believed most people in the United States consume too much salt in their diets. The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg per day for healthy individuals between the ages of 2 and 50. The relationship between dietary sodium and blood pressure in children and adolescents is largely unexamined in prospective studies, according to the study background.

Lynn L. Moore of the Boston University School of Medicine and coauthors found no evidence that higher sodium intakes had an adverse effect on adolescent blood pressure. Some analysis showed that those girls consuming 3,500 mg per day or more of salt had generally lower diastolic blood pressures than girls who consumed less than 2,500 mg per day. Food consumption was based on self reports and blood pressure was measured annually.

Overall, girls in the highest category of potassium intake (2,400 mg per day or more) had lower late-adolescent systolic and diastolic blood pressure than those girls who consumed less potassium, the results show.

Girls who consumed the most sodium and potassium consumed the most calories too, along with the most dairy, fruits, vegetables and fiber, according to the results. The study concludes that this study emphasizes the need to develop methods for estimating salt sensitivity to be used in future studies of high-risk populations and points to the potential health risks associated with the existing low dietary potassium intakes among US children and adolescents.

The study is published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

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