CardioExchange Archive

January 19th, 2015

Optimum Salt Intake in Elderly Remains Elusive

Larry Husten, PHD

A new study offers fresh evidence that current salt recommendations should be taken with, well, a grain of salt. Current guidelines now recommend that everyone should have sodium intake levels below 2300 mg per day. For many people at higher risk, including everyone over 50 years of age, sodium intake should be below 1500 mg/d. […]

---

August 18th, 2014

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: August 18th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include the three sodium studies from NEJM, the CLARIFY study, and more.

---

August 18th, 2014

An Expert’s Perspective: Why Salt Is Not Like Tobacco and Why Guidelines Are Tricky

Larry Husten, PHD

At the center of this week’s renewed debate on salt was Salim Yusuf, the longtime influential and occasionally controversial cardiology researcher and clinical trialist based at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. I spoke with Yusuf before the publication of the New England Journal of Medicine papers, which include his own two papers from the PURE study. Yusuf was troubled by […]

---

August 13th, 2014

Two New Studies Fuel the Debate Over Sodium

Larry Husten, PHD

Three papers and an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine are sure to throw fresh fuel on the ongoing fiery debate over sodium recommendations. Current guidelines recommend that people should limit their intake of sodium to 1.5  to 2.4 grams per day, but these recommendations are based on projections and have never been tested in […]

---

April 16th, 2013

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: April 16th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include fibrinolysis or primary PCI in STEMI, the effect of lower sodium intake on health, and the effect of increased potassium intake on CV risk factors and disease.

---

October 20th, 2011

CDC and AHA Tussle Over Just How Bad the Salt Problem Really Is

Larry Husten, PHD

No matter how you slice it, a lot of people in the U.S. consume too much sodium. But the CDC and the American Heart Association (AHA) disagree about just how bad the salt problem really is. U.S. guidelines currently recommend that everyone keep their daily sodium intake below 2300 mg, but a large subpopulation, including people aged […]

---

July 12th, 2011

Study Finds High Sodium-Potassium Ratio Strongly Tied to Mortality and CV Disease

Larry Husten, PHD

The separate roles of sodium and potassium in cardiovascular disease have been extensively observed in epidemiologic studies. Now a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine examines their joint effect. Quanhe Yang and colleagues analyzed data from 12,267 adults participating in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. As expected, they found that higher […]

---