Running time: 9 minutes

In the light of the New England Journal of Medicine‘s recent publication three papers on sodium intake and its implications for cardiovascular disease, blood pressure, and excess mortality, we thought we’d speak again with Dr. Jan Staessen, who surprised a lot of people 3 years ago with a paper in JAMA warning against population-wide sodium reductions. His research showed that cutting sodium intakes to levels recommended by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture was associated in his cohort with an increase in cardiovascular risk.

Dr. Staessen kindly agreed to serve as our guide through the new NEJM research.

LINKS:

The 2011 Staessen interview

Physician’s First Watch coverage of the new NEJM studies