Salt intake and hypertension.

The guidelines for hypertension treatment recommend a reduction of dietary sodium intake. There is still a controversy, few studies showing an inverse correlation between cardiovascular morbidity and salt intake, about the be nefit expected from a reduction of sodium intake on the blood pressure leve l. This controversy is explained by the great variability of the pressure resp onse when individuals are exposed to different sodium intakes, diet and env ironmental factors playing an additional role of variability. Salt sensitiv ity is more frequent in hypertensive, obese and in elderly patients. There is no harm to reduce salt overtake moreover normalisation of the dietary so dium intake has clearly demonstrated its ability to reduce hypertension com plications in patients at high cardiovascular risks.