Does eating a lot of salt make your blood pressure jump around?
The Impact of High Dietary Sodium Consumption on Blood Pressure Variability in Healthy, Young Adults.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
High salt intake didn’t increase peripheral BPV at all—even with extreme doses.
Rodent studies show salt increases BPV, and public health guidelines warn salt causes BP instability. This human trial found no such effect in healthy young adults.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re a healthy young adult under 30, occasional high-salt meals likely won’t harm your blood pressure stability.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
High salt intake didn’t increase peripheral BPV at all—even with extreme doses.
Rodent studies show salt increases BPV, and public health guidelines warn salt causes BP instability. This human trial found no such effect in healthy young adults.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re a healthy young adult under 30, occasional high-salt meals likely won’t harm your blood pressure stability.
Publication
Journal
American journal of hypertension
Year
2020
Authors
Kamila U. Migdal, Matthew C. Babcock, Austin T. Robinson, J. Watso, Megan M. Wenner, S. Stocker, W. Farquhar
Related Content
Claims (10)
For healthy young people, eating more or less salt doesn’t seem to make their blood pressure bounce around more or less — their blood pressure stays steady no matter how much sodium they pee out.
Eating a lot of salt for 10 days doesn’t make your blood pressure jump around more than usual in healthy young adults, so your blood pressure stays steady even with a salty diet.
Eating a lot of salt for 10 days might make the pressure in your main arteries bounce around a bit more, but it’s not clear yet—more research is needed to see if it affects your core arteries differently than your arm blood pressure.
If you eat a lot of salt—like 18 grams a day for 10 days—your body will flush out more salt in your urine and also have a bit more salt in your blood, which proves you actually ate the salty food they gave you.
Eating more salt won't make your blood pressure stay high if you're otherwise healthy.