Is systemic hypertension only a sign of chronic sodium chloride intoxication?
The most important obstacle for preventing hypertension is the belief that systemic hypertension has no identifiable cause. This belief, hiding the main offender, sodium chloride, causes too much time wasting for combating against hypertension. Accepting that sodium chloride is a drug and re-evaluating the situation at the light of current pharmacologic rules, it can be possible to get rid of the suspicions about the etiologic role of sodium chloride for developing systemic hypertension. It is apparent that systemic hypertension is a chronic intoxication produced by a drug (sodium chloride) whose dose is between minimal and maximal effective dose. Based on epidemiologic studies, minimal effective dose of salt, producing hypertension is estimated as 1.76 g/d. This suggests that the aim in this context should be removal of table salt from the human diet. Re-evaluating salt-hypertension relation by means of dose-response relation suggests that "salt sensitivity" is a baseless notion, because when the dose is between minimal and maximal effective dose, there are a number of individuals which respond up or down of any selected level, similar to other drugs. Another standpoint of refuting removal of salt is the belief that saltless diet is not palatable. According to the self-experiences of the Author, this belief is valid only for some time (for a few months), even a few years later saltless meals were perceived more palatable. The present paper describes evidences showing that systemic hypertension is formed by the chronic exposure to salt and it also answers contrary opinions.
Department of Pharmacology, Erciyes University, Medical Faculty, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey. ytekol@erciyes.edu.tr
Yalcin
Y
Tekol
D000818:Animals; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000209:etiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000633:toxicity*; D012982:Sodium, Dietary / Q000009:adverse effects*
D012982:Sodium, Dietary; D012965:Sodium Chloride