People who pee out more salt tend to have higher blood pressure, and their blood pressure tends to rise faster as they get older—but in whole populations, the average blood pressure and how many people have high blood pressure don’t seem to change based on salt levels.

42

Pro

0

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

42

Community contributions welcome

42

Intersalt: an international study of electrolyte excretion and blood pressure. Results for 24 hour urinary sodium and potassium excretion. Intersalt Cooperative Research Group.

Cross-Sectional Study

Human

1988 Jul 30

This big global study found that people who eat more salt tend to have higher blood pressure, and in places where people eat a lot of salt, blood pressure tends to rise more as people get older — but the average blood pressure in those places isn’t always higher, and not everyone there has high blood pressure.

Contradicting (0)

0

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Intersalt: an international study of electrolyte excretion and blood pressure. Results for 24 hour urinary sodium and potassium excretion. Intersalt Cooperative Research Group.

Score: 42

DOI: 10.1136/bmj.297.6644.319

Similar Assertions

People who excrete more sodium in their urine tend to have more fluid outside their cells.

34

0

86%

People who pee out more salt tend to have higher blood pressure, and this pattern shows up in lots of different groups of people around the world.

42

0

84%

The levels of various blood chemicals like electrolytes, hormones, and kidney markers don't change based on how much sodium someone excretes in their urine.

34

0

83%

If you have heart disease and eat more salt, your blood pressure tends to go up — for every extra gram of salt you excrete in urine, your top blood pressure number goes up by about 1.3 points and your bottom number by about 0.5 points.

0

83%

People who pee out more potassium tend to have lower blood pressure, at least in adults between 20 and 59—but this isn’t true for everyone everywhere.

42

0

81%