Salt contributes to high blood pressure

A high salt diet causes fluid retention, which in turn raises blood pressure. In people who are salt-sensitive, the ingestion of salt contributes to blood pressure increase two ways”:
*Through cardiac output
*Through the interaction of salt intake with hormones that raise blood pressure

The salt is taken, the blood volume expand, which in turn increases the cardiac output. But the extent of the increase was significantly greater in the salt sensitive body than in the salt resistant ones. The elevation of blood pressure with salt loading in the salt sensitive body is due to the increase cardiac output.

In people who are salt resistant the body adjusts its blood flow resistant by opening them up a little bit to accommodate the increase in cardiac output so that the blood pressure doesn’t actually rise. In people who are salt-sensitive, the body does not adjust the resistant; thus, when the cardiac output increases, it raises arterial pressure, the blood pressure rises along with it.

Several hormones play important roles in controlling blood pressure. Angiotensin II is a peptide hormone derived from enzymatic cleavage of angiotensin operated by angiotensin-converting enzyme, whose biological action results in an increase of blood pressure. The combination of salt intake and angiotensin II causes the blood pressure to increase more dramatically that it would have owing to the effects of the angiotensin II alone.

How to reduce salt consumption?
Avoid adding table salt to food during cooking and never put a salt cellar on the dining table. Researchers have found that if the people stop doing this blood pressure is reduce by at least 5mmHg.
Salt contributes to high blood pressure

Salt sensitivity

Increased dietary salt intake does not raise blood pressure in all hypertensive person; those whose blood pressure rise in response to high salt diets or fall with salt restrictions are term salt sensitive.

Salt sensitivity, even in those who are non-hypertensive, has been found to confer its own cardiovascular risks, including indirect hypertension and cardiovascular death.

Factors influencing salt sensitivity include obesity, age, race, plasma renin level, sympathetic nervous system activity, and the response of concomitant disease such as diabetes mellitus and renal insufficiency.

Salt sensitivity occurs with greater frequency and severity in non-hypertensive African Americans than in non-hypertensive Whites.

Salt sensitivity is accompanied by decreased plasma renin activity. For adults as well as children, renin levels for Blacks are typically lower than for Whites across blood pressure status group.

The degree of salt sensitivity increases exponentially with declining kidney –function, As patients approach end-stage renal disease the great majority are salt sensitive.
Salt sensitivity