For people with slightly high blood pressure, eating more or less salt doesn’t seem to change their chance of dying, no matter how old they are, their gender, race, or whether they tried to lose weight — this pattern held true for over 20 years.

For people with slightly high blood pressure, eating more salt seems to raise the risk of dying earlier—even at very low salt levels below what’s usually considered healthy. There’s no sign that eating very little salt is safe or helpful.

People aged 30 to 54 who eat more salt over several years are 12% more likely to die from any cause for every extra 1,000 mg of salt per day—and eating very little salt doesn’t seem to help them live longer.

People who eat about 3 to 6 grams of salt per day seem to have fewer heart problems and live longer than those who eat much less or much more salt — it’s like there’s a sweet spot for salt intake.

People with slightly high blood pressure who were randomly assigned to eat less salt were 15% less likely to die over 20 years, but the result wasn’t strong enough to say for sure it was because of the salt reduction — it might just be chance.

Eating a lot of salt—more than 7 grams a day—might make people with high blood pressure more likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or even die sooner.