When you eat less salt and more potassium-rich foods at the same time, your blood pressure drops more than if you just cut salt or just add potassium by itself.

When you eat less salt and more potassium-rich foods at the same time, your blood pressure drops more than if you just cut salt or just add potassium alone.

If you eat less salt but add more potassium to it, your blood pressure might drop more if you usually don’t get much potassium in your diet—because your body gets a bigger boost from the potassium than it loses from the sodium.

When people who don’t eat much potassium switch to salt with extra potassium, their blood pressure drops mostly because they’re getting more potassium—not because they’re eating less salt, since they’re still eating plenty of salt.

Cutting back on salt can lower blood pressure, but sometimes it doesn’t do much at all—why? It depends on the person, how you measure it, and how much potassium they eat.

Cutting down on salt helps lower your blood pressure, even if you're already taking medicine for high blood pressure — so salt reduction adds extra benefit on top of your meds.