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92,000 deaths in US preventable

Reducing salt intake could save billions of dollars in health-care costs

Posted in Diet on 22nd January, 2010 | no responses

The United States could save $24 billion in healthcare costs and prevent up to 66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths per year by taking 3 grammes off the daily salt intake. Dr Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo and colleagues of the University of California said that benefits to the United States population of cutting back on salt would be comparable to cutting smoking by 50 per cent, significantly lowering obesity rates and giving cholesterol drugs to virtually everyone to prevent heart attacks.

This news comes the week after Mayor Bloomberg of New York announced the launch of a new, voluntary initiative to cut salt consumption (see Alert, 11 January, here >>).

Source: Reuters UK, 21 January 2010.

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