Science / Medicine : Diet-Blood Pressure Link Seen

New experimental data supports the suspicion that getting enough potassium in the diet may play a key part in keeping blood pressure under control. The research suggests that when people do not get enough potassium in their diet, their bodies fail to get rid of enough salt, which makes their blood pressure go up.

Epidemiological studies that look at large groups of people have found an association between low potassium intake and high blood pressure. But experts were uncertain whether the potassium or some other nutritional deficiency was responsible.

In the latest study, doctors compared the blood pressures of 10 healthy people on very low-potassium diets and on diets with normal amounts of the nutrient.

“When these people ate diets low in potassium, their blood pressures went up. One of the main reasons seems to be related to sodium excretion. When not eating enough potassium, they could not get rid of enough sodium,” said Dr. G. Gopal Krishna, who directed the study at Temple University in Philadelphia.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.