Women who consume enough banana avocado salmon can reduce the negative effects of salt in their diet. A new study found that a potassium-rich diet was associated with lower blood pressure, especially in women with high salt intake.
“It is well known that high salt intake is associated with increased blood pressure and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke,” said study author, Professor Lippert Vogt of the Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. “It has been shown that potassium intake through the “Health advice focuses on limiting salt intake, but this is difficult to achieve when your diet includes processed foods,” he said. “Potassium helps excrete more sodium through the urine.”
The study included 24,963 people (11,267 men, 13,696 women) who participated in the EPIC-Norfolk study, which recruited people aged 40 to 79 years from a community hospital in Norfolk, UK from 1993 to 1997. . The average age was 59 years for men and 58 years for women. They completed lifestyle questionnaires, measured blood pressure, and took urine samples to determine dietary intake of sodium and potassium. Accordingly, participants were divided into 3 groups according to sodium intake (low/medium/high) and potassium intake (low/medium/high).
After adjusting for age and sex, the research team analyzed the relationship between potassium intake and blood pressure, and found that potassium consumption was associated with blood pressure in women. As potassium intake increased, blood pressure decreased. When analyzing the association according to sodium intake (low/medium/high), the relationship between potassium and blood pressure was only observed in women with high sodium intake. There was no association between potassium and blood pressure in men.
During a median follow-up of 19.5 years, 55% of participants were hospitalized or died of cardiovascular disease. The researchers analyzed the association between potassium intake and cardiovascular events after taking into account age, sex, body mass index, sodium intake, smoking, alcohol consumption, diabetes, and a history of a previous heart attack or stroke.
In a full cohort analysis, the group with the highest potassium intake had a 13% lower risk of cardiovascular events than the group with the lowest potassium intake. When gender was analyzed separately, the risk reduction ratio was 7% for men and 11% for women. The amount of salt in the diet did not affect the relationship between potassium and cardiovascular events in both men and women.
“These results suggest that while potassium helps maintain heart health, it has more benefits for women than men,” said Vogt. “It was the same, suggesting that potassium has other heart-protecting factors besides increasing sodium excretion.”
The World Health Organization recommends that adults consume at least 3.5 g of potassium and less than 2 g of sodium per day. Foods high in potassium include vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, dairy, fish. For example, 115 grams of banana has 375 mg, 154 grams of cooked salmon has 780 mg, 136 grams of potatoes has 500 mg, and 1 cup of milk has 375 mg of potassium.
“These findings show that we need to go beyond salt limits to increase potassium content for a heart-healthy diet,” said Vogt. .
The study was published in the European Heart Journal. ‘Sex-specific associations between potassium intake, blood pressure, and cardiovascular outcomes: the EPIC-Norfolk study’.
Reporter Lee Bo-hyun [email protected]
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