THURSDAY, Jan. 15 (HealthDay News) -- A high ratio of excreted sodium to potassium is associated with a subsequently higher risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a report published in the Jan. 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Nancy R. Cook, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues conducted a study of 2,275 adults aged 30 to 54 with pre-hypertension who participated in two sodium reduction trials, and for whom 10 to 15 years of post-trial follow-up data was available.
During the follow-up period there were 193 cardiovascular disease events, and the risk of an event was higher in the top quartile of urinary sodium excretion versus the bottom quartile (rate ratio, 1.20), the investigators found. The risk for potassium excretion decreased by 36 percent from the lowest to the highest quartile, the study showed. However, these trends were not as significant as the effects of an increased sodium to potassium excretion ratio. Those in the highest quartile were at more risk of cardiovascular disease than those in the lowest quartile (rate ratio, 1.50), the report indicates.
"These data support our findings of reduced cardiovascular disease risk among subjects with lower sodium intake, higher potassium intake, or both," the authors write. "The totality of evidence suggests that lowering dietary sodium intake, while increasing potassium consumption, at the population level might reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease."
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