Cutting down on salt lowers blood pressure more for people who already have high blood pressure than for those with normal blood pressure—about 2.5 times more.

Even if your blood pressure is normal, cutting back on salt still helps lower it a little—which could help prevent high blood pressure as you get older.

If you cut down on salt, your blood pressure drops more if you already have high blood pressure than if you don’t—and the drop is about 6.5 mm Hg higher for every 100 mmol of salt you reduce.

If you eat less salt, your blood pressure goes down steadily — even at very low salt levels, cutting back more still helps lower it.

If you have high blood pressure and cut down on salt from a lot to very little, your top blood pressure number might drop by about 7 to 9 points — and the higher your blood pressure was to start with, the more it drops.

Cutting back on salt can lower your blood pressure a little bit—about 3 to 5 points for the top number and 1 to 3 points for the bottom number—and this works the same way whether you're Asian, Black, or White, as long as you start with similar blood pressure and salt intake.