Hold the Salt: Surprising Findings on Low-Salt Diets, Heart Failure, and Quality of Life

Pouring Salt Shaker

Study reveals how reducing sodium intake can help patients with heart failure.

Surprising findings indicate that a low-salt diet improves symptoms and quality of life while not preventing mortality or hospital visits.

People with weak hearts have been advised to reduce their salt consumption for over a century, but there has been no scientific data to support this advice until now.

The results of the biggest randomized clinical study on sodium reduction and heart failure were published in The Lancet and presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session over the weekend (April 2-4, 2022), with mixed results.

Although lowering salt consumption did not result in fewer emergency visits, hospitalizations, or deaths in heart failure patients, the researchers did see an improvement in symptoms including swelling, weariness, and coughing, as well as a higher overall quality of life.

“We can no longer put a blanket recommendation across all patients and say that limiting sodium intake is going to reduce your chances of either dying or being in the hospital, but I can say comfortably that it could improve people’s quality of life overall,” said lead author Justin Ezekowitz, professor at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and co-director of the Canadian VIGOUR Centre.

The researchers followed 806 patients at 26 medical centers in Canada, the United States, Columbia, Chile, Mexico, and New Zealand. All were suffering from heart failure, a condition in which the heart becomes too weak to pump blood effectively. Half of the study participants were randomly assigned to receive usual care, while the rest received nutritional counseling on how to reduce their dietary salt intake.

Patients in the nutritional counseling arm of the trial were given dietitian-designed menu suggestions using foods from their own region and were encouraged to cook at home without adding salt and to avoid high-salt ingredients. Most dietary sodium is hidden in processed foods or restaurant meals rather than being shaken at the table, Ezekowitz noted.

“The broad rule that I’ve learned from dietitians is that anything in a bag, a box, or a can generally has more salt in it than you would think,” said Ezekowitz, who is also a cardiologist at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute and director of the U of A’s Cardiovascular Research Institute,

The target sodium intake was 1,500 milligrams per day — or the equivalent of about two-thirds of a teaspoon of salt — which is the Health Canada recommended limit for most Canadians whether they have heart failure or not.

Before the study, patients consumed an average of 2,217 mg per day, or just under one teaspoon. After one year of study, the usual care group consumed an average of 2,072 mg of sodium daily, while those who received nutritional guidance consumed 1,658 mg per day, a reduction of a bit less than a quarter teaspoon equivalent.

The researchers compared rates of death from any cause, cardiovascular hospitalization and cardiovascular emergency department visits in the two study groups but found no statistically significant difference.

They did find consistent improvements for the low-sodium group using three different quality of life assessment tools, as well as the New York Heart Association heart failure classification, a measure of heart failure severity.

Ezekowitz said that he will continue to advise heart failure patients to cut back on salt, but now he will be clearer about the expected benefits. He urges clinicians to recognize that dietary changes can be a useful intervention for some of their patients.

The team will do further research to isolate a marker in the blood of patients who benefited most from the low-sodium diet, with the aim of being able to give more targeted individual diet prescriptions in the future. The researchers will also follow up the trial patients at 24 months and five years to determine whether further benefits are achieved over the long term.

Reference: “Reduction of dietary sodium to less than 100 mmol in heart failure (SODIUM-HF): an international, open-label, randomised, controlled trial” 2 April 2022, The Lancet.
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00369-5

Meeting: American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session

Funding: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, University Hospital Foundation, Health Research Council of New Zealand

7 Comments on "Hold the Salt: Surprising Findings on Low-Salt Diets, Heart Failure, and Quality of Life"

  1. About 20 years ago I had headaches and high blood pressure. Was addicted to soy sauce and pizza just to name 2 high sodium products. Went on a low sodium diet and felt better in weeks. Fast forward to 2020. Had the covid virus in the summer. Couldn’t eat solids. So I was on a liquid diet for about a month. Had a relapse after going through the virus. Couldn’t figure it out. Had blood tests and found out I was low on sodium. The moral of this story is, moderation. I was a little hard core when I first went on a low sodium diet.

  2. Moderation on the low side works for me. Ankle edema reduced considerably. I was once told cooking reduces the effect of sodium but I haven’t found any studied proof. Reduction of salt intake to lower B/P is the solution for me. Salt substitutes for a week seemed to be the answer until experiencing leg cramps. I still use them moderately.

  3. Everyone’s body is different but cutting salt out completely is not good. On average, people consume over 2,000mg of salt a day. Based on some research, 575 to 600mg of salt a day would suffice, but it means no processed food and limiting salt at home (seasoning). Remember it’s a lifestyle to improve your quality of life not just a diet.

  4. I LOWERED MY SALT INTAKE SO WELL,THAT I wound up in the er and had to get intravenous,So do it in moderation is what I say and have been ok since.

  5. What a “fluffy” outcome of so called research. On one hand it didn’t reduce death or hospital visits so they are saying that there were no measurable improvements in heath and then they say it can improve quality of life but dont say how. Thats not scientific thats a thought.
    I can, as a non researcher say, that cutting out sugars will cut deaths or hospital visits, and the reason, because it cuts inflammation substantially in the body… but who am I

  6. Myles Hornstra | April 4, 2022 at 3:00 pm | Reply

    I heard salt was good for the heart. idk bout sodium tho

  7. Increase your potassium intake.

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