Research
Hormonal
Reducing sodium intake significantly lowers systolic and diastolic blood pressure in adults and children, with no adverse effects on blood lipids, catecholamine levels, or renal function.
For most adults, reducing sodium intake to less than 2 grams per day (or cutting current intake by at least one-third) will lower blood pressure without harming your kidneys or cholesterol. Focus on reducing processed foods and added salt to achieve this.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
In adults a reduction in sodium intake significantly reduced resting systolic blood pressure by 3.39 mm Hg (95% confidence interval 2.46 to 4.31) and resting diastolic blood pressure by 1.54 mm Hg (0.98 to 2.11)... Decreased sodium intake had no significant adverse effect on blood lipids, catecholamine levels, or renal function in adults (P>0.05).
Why this rating
The study is a systematic review and meta-analysis of 37 randomized controlled trials, rated as 'high quality' by GRADE criteria.
Source
Effect of lower sodium intake on health: systematic review and meta-analyses
Nancy Aburto et al. · BMJ · 2013
DOI 10.1136/bmj.f1326
Meta-analysis · 64 studiesCited 1,245×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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