For US adults with high blood pressure who are already on treatment, how much sodium versus potassium they eat doesn’t seem to make a real difference in whether they get their blood pressure down to a healthy level.

For US adults with high blood pressure who are on medication, whether they eat more sodium or potassium doesn't change how well their blood pressure drugs work or their risk of heart disease.

If you eat a little more potassium-rich food each day—like bananas or spinach—you might lower your risk of stroke and reduce your blood pressure a bit, even if you don’t change how much salt you eat.

Eating too much salt compared to potassium might be worse for your heart over time than just looking at salt or potassium by itself.

People today eat way more salt than our ancestors did, but less of other important minerals like potassium and magnesium—and this mix is linked to why so many people today have high blood pressure.

If you're a middle-aged adult with slightly high blood pressure, having more sodium than potassium in your body may raise your chances of heart disease by 24% for every unit increase in the balance — and this combo predicts heart problems better than either mineral alone.