Another study found that in patients with type II diabetes, less sodium was associated with an increased risk of death. In athletes, a low sodium intake can cause hyponatremia, a sodium deficiency which can be very dangerous.

The Importance of Other Dietary Factors:

There are many lifestyle factors that can influence blood pressure to an even greater enough of degree than sodium restriction.

Some of them include the minerals magnesium and potassium, which you should be getting if you eat plenty of animal and plant foods.

Another way is to indulge in a bit of dark chocolate every now and then.

A low-carb diet lowers insulin levels, which causes the kidneys to excrete excess sodium from the body. Low-carb diets are an excellent way to reduce blood pressure and improve health.

And last but not least, exercise is a very powerful way to reduce blood pressure and will improve your health in more ways than you can imagine.

It seems wrong to blindly focus on sodium, when there are so many other lifestyle factors that can have a much stronger effect.

However if your doctor, after having read this write-up, has recommended that you limit sodium for whatever reason, then by all means continue to do so.

However, for people who are generally healthy and want to stay healthy, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to be even remotely concerned about moderate intakes of sodium.

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