A new study, the largest of its kind, found that following a low-salt diet does not reduce the risk of death from heart failure or prevent emergency hospital visits, but it does alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life.
The research showed improvements in symptoms such as swelling, fatigue, and cough, as well as an overall enhancement in quality of life when sodium, the main component of table salt, was reduced.
The study, recently presented at the 71st annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, is the largest clinical trial of its kind, where the research team followed heart failure patients in 26 medical centers across Canada, Mexico, the United States, Colombia, Chile, and New Zealand.
Heart failure is a condition in which the heart becomes too weak to pump blood effectively.
According to results published in "The Lancet" medical journal, participating patients were monitored after reducing their salt intake, with some decreasing their intake to less than one tablespoon per day, while others reduced it to less than a quarter of a tablespoon daily.
The research team from the University of Alberta in Canada compared death rates among participants, considering all causes of death, as well as cardiovascular hospitalization rates and visits to the cardiac emergency department, and found no statistically significant difference.
Justin Izcoff, the study supervisor, stated, "We can no longer make a blanket recommendation for all patients and say that reducing sodium intake will decrease the likelihood of death or hospitalization, but I can comfortably say that it can improve people's quality of life overall."
