Cutting back on salt in your diet can lower your blood pressure a bit—about 5.6 points for the top number and 1.7 points for the bottom number—if you have type 2 diabetes.

When people with type 2 diabetes eat less salt, their blood pressure tends to go down in a similar way across different studies — it’s not all over the place.

Eating less salt can help lower your blood pressure a little bit — on average, by about 3-4 points for the top number and 1-2 points for the bottom number, based on studies of many different people.

Most people over 50 — even those with normal blood pressure or on blood pressure pills — see their blood pressure drop when they eat less salt.

Eating too much salt might raise your blood pressure, but we’re not sure if cutting back on salt actually helps prevent heart problems because no big, fair studies have proven it yet.

If you cut down how much salt you eat from a lot to very little, your blood pressure will go down—by about 15 points for the top number and 10 points for the bottom number—and this works best if you already have high blood pressure.