Relationship of sodium and potassium intake to blood pressure

Abstract

1) An added daily sodium chloride intake of six g supplementing a normal salt intake and reaching to the limit of taste tolerance was given for 2 to 9 weeks to seven patients with mild, untreated, essential hypertension and to three normal subjects. It did not cause edema or significant change in body weight or blood pressure. 2) The subsequent administration to the same group of subjects of a mixture of 6 g sodium chloride and 6 g potassium chloride for 4 weeks had no significant effect on body weight or blood pressure. 3) Five g supplementary sodium chloride given daily for 4 weeks failed to antagonize the antihypertensive action of hydrochlorothiazide in the majority of eight patients studied. 4) A mixture of 5 g each sodium chloride and potassium chloride administered for 2 weeks to five patients with mild, controlled, systemic arterial hypertension and thiazide-induced hypokalemia had no effect on the blood pressure of four patients; in one patient the diastolic pressure rose. In two patients hypokalemia was corrected by the salt mixture without affecting blood pressure.