The Study
POLYMORPHISMS IN THE SERUM- AND GLUCOCORTICOID-INDUCIBLE KINASE 1 GENE ARE ASSOCIATED WITH BLOOD PRESSURE AND RENIN RESPONSE TO DIETARY SALT INTAKE
This study found that people with certain versions of a gene (SGK1) tended to have higher blood pressure when they ate a lot of salt, but not when they ate little salt. It doesn’t prove the gene causes the high blood pressure — just that they’re linked in this group of people.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Some people have a genetic quirk that makes their blood pressure go up when they eat too much salt, because their kidneys don't properly signal the body to slow down salt retention.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 544 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — a 16.3 mmHg BP spike on salt is clinically meaningful and increases heart disease risk.
- 2People with two copies of the SGK1 gene version had blood pressure rise 16.3 mmHg on high salt, vs.
- 39.1 mmHg in others.
- 4They also had 2.18x higher odds of low-renin hypertension.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of human hypertension
Year
2012
Authors
A. Rao, Bei Sun, A. Saxena, P. Hopkins, X. Jeunemaître, N. Brown, G. Adler, Jonathan S. Williams
Related Content
Claims (6)
People of Caucasian descent with high blood pressure who have two copies of certain gene versions may be more likely to have a type of high blood pressure that doesn’t respond well to the body’s normal salt-control system, and this could mean their condition is driven by how their genes affect salt and hormone balance.
People of Caucasian descent with a certain common gene version might see their blood pressure rise a little when they eat a lot of salt, but the change is so small that we can’t be sure it’s real yet — we’d need to study more people to find out for sure.
People of Caucasian descent with high blood pressure who have two copies of certain gene versions tend to see their blood pressure rise more when they eat a lot of salt, and their body produces less of a hormone called renin when they eat little salt—this suggests their genes might make them more sensitive to how much salt they eat.
For people with high blood pressure who are white, having certain versions of the SGK1 gene might make their blood pressure more sensitive to salt—but only if they eat a lot of salt. If they eat very little salt, this gene doesn’t seem to affect their blood pressure at all.
In people with high blood pressure who are white, certain gene variations seem to make their bodies produce less of a hormone called renin when they eat less salt—but these same gene changes don’t affect another hormone called aldosterone. This suggests the genes are tweaking renin on their own, not through aldosterone.
Some people’s genes make them more likely to get high blood pressure when they eat salty foods, while others don’t — it’s all in their DNA.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.