More Mixed Messages in Terms of Salt

In this issue of CJASN , McCarron et al. (1) again take on the salt and health issue. The group seems to be in the minority this year, because the salt admonishers have been out in force (2–4). The salt party-line opposition has been relatively quiet as of late, although Graudal and Galloe (5) pooh-poohed salt restriction as a component of antihypertensive therapy, stating that, “Population studies have not been able to show an association between salt intake and unfavorable health outcome.” On the contrary, in their review, He and MacGregor (3) showed a relationship between urinary sodium excretion and death from stroke with r = 0.832. They then showed a similarly robust relationship between urinary sodium excretion and stomach cancer with r = 0.702. Cardiac left ventricular mass takes a hefty beating with r = 0.61. A redrawn plot from Intersalt shows an increase in BP with age against salt weighing in at r = 0.56, a topic that affects me directly, although my wife thinks it's the booze. Dr. He, one of the authors, makes his living from epidemiology, so it must all be true. It is surprising that anyone is left alive. Nothing brings on more emotions than this topic!Why …