The sodium in salt raises your blood pressure when you consume it from food sources. Sodium, however, is just one electrolyte mineral that affects the human body’s blood pressure. Potassium can have a blunting effect on sodium’s action, but only if you consume these two nutrients in the correct proportions. Your food choices directly affect your body’s blood levels of these minerals. While the electrolytes calcium and magnesium might positively affect blood pressure, only potassium minerals have been proven to do so.
How Blood Pressure Changes
When the sodium element in sodium chloride, or table salt, enters your bloodstream, it draws body fluid from the cells to it, increasing the volume within your blood vessels. This raises your blood pressure. The heart pumps this blood through the body and eventually to the kidneys, which correct the mineral imbalance by excretion. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that potassium in the blood counteracts this chain of events to some extent. Inadequate dietary potassium, however, allows continued high blood pressure to become chronic.
Sodium-to-Potassium Ratio
Based on current science, the Institute of Medicine has determined the appropriate intakes of sodium and potassium to sustain healthy body function. Dietary potassium amounts should exceed sodium at a ratio of 4,700 mg of potassium to between 1,300 and 2,300 mg of sodium, depending on your age and health condition. Research results published in the January 2009 “Archives of Internal Medicine” established a further relationship between these two minerals. The dietary study showed that an inverse ratio of greater sodium and potassium increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, of which high blood pressure is a major contributing cause.
Salt in Foods
Chronic high blood pressure problems arise when you regularly fail to achieve the correct potassium-to-sodium ratio from your diet. Health officials, such as those at the USDA, note that this widespread practice is due in large part to the popular consumption of commercially prepared foods, to which salt is routinely added, sometimes in very large amounts. Over the course of three meals a day, you might take in an average of 3,400 mg of sodium.
Potassium in Foods
If you have a dietary mineral imbalance that threatens your cardiovascular health, focus on increasing potassium in your diet. To restore the proper balance that promotes normal blood pressure, you’ll need to cut back on sodium and increase your potassium intake. As you choose foods with less added salt, you’ll naturally raise your potassium intake from milk, fresh meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, eggs and unsalted nuts.
References
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute: Do Vitamin Mineral Supplements Such as Potassium, Calcium of Magnesium Help Lower Blood Pressure?
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: Dietary Guidelines for Americans; 2010
- National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine: Dietary Reference Intakes, Electrolytes and Water
- “Archives of Internal Medicine”; Joint Effects of Sodium and Potassium Intake on Subsequent Cardiovascular Disease; Nancy R. Cook, et al.; January 2009
- Harvard School of Public Health: Lower Salt and Sodium
