Experts propose a new strategy to better control high blood pressure

High blood pressure can be controlled better with a strategy that combines boosting potassium intake with reducing sodium, according to a new report.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects more than 1.28 billion adults worldwide and is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Public health guidelines underscore sodium reduction as the best way to reduce hypertension and cardiovascular disease risk.

In the new report, a team of physicians and health experts propose that dietary impact on hypertension will be greater with a complementary strategy of increasing intake of potassium, which can serve as a salt substitute. This new understanding of potassium’s critical role and efficacy in reducing blood pressure calls for a paradigm shift to consider sodium and potassium together when developing public health recommendations.

It is time to view dietary interventions holistically because food components interact and physiology is integrative across systems. Growing evidence shows that increasing dietary potassium as well as reducing sodium intake work together to better manage hypertension.”

Naomi Fukagawa, M.D. Ph.D, professor of medicine emerita at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine, University of Vermont and first author on the report

The peer-reviewed report appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and was supported by IAFNS Sodium in Food and Health Implications Committee. It examines the basis for current intake recommendations for sodium and potassium, the strategies for sodium reduction and potassium enhancement, implementation challenges, and future directions for research and policy to accelerate public health progress.

Excessive sodium intake and insufficient potassium consumption are major modifiable contributors to elevated blood pressure. While average sodium intake remains above recommendations, potassium consumption is often “far below optimal levels in both developed and developing nations,” according to the authors.

Potassium-rich foods include fruits, vegetables, legumes and dairy. Because there is a maximum level at which potassium salts can be added to foods before a metallic flavor is detected, food makers must carefully approach the balance of sodium and potassium in their products.

The authors conclude that “dietary sodium reduction is a foundational strategy for hypertension prevention and management. However, new evidence supports a broadening of the current approach that focuses solely on sodium reduction and provides equal emphasis on increasing potassium intake.”