Excess salt, the primary source of sodium, contributes to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, the leading killer in the United States.

Immediately reducing people’s salt consumption from current levels to the upper limit of the U.S. government guideline — 2,300 milligrams a day — would save 500,000 to 850,000 lives over the next decade, largely by reducing heart attacks and strokes, the study found.

Gradually reducing sodium levels in processed or restaurant foods by 4 percent a year for 10 years would still save 280,000 to 500,000 lives over a decade, the researchers concluded.

The average American consumes about 3,500 mg per day, and men tend to ingest much more than that, according to the study, which was published Feb. 11 in the journal Hypertension.

“No matter how we look at it, the story is the same — there will be huge benefits in reducing sodium,” study lead author Pam Coxson, a mathematician at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a university news release.

For the study, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought together three groups of scientists who used different computer models to estimate how lowering salt intake would save lives.

All the models showed consistent, substantial benefits if current sodium intake were reduced to a level close to the upper limit of the federal guidelines.

Many people believe that taking the salt shaker off the dinner table will reduce their sodium consumption to a healthy level, but 80 percent of the sodium consumed by Americans comes from processed foods, Coxson noted.

Bread and other cereals account for about one-third of daily sodium intake. Other types of processed foods that have high sodium levels include canned soup and processed meats. Even fresh chicken is sometimes injected with salt solutions before packaging. Restaurant meals are also high in sodium.

In commercial settings, salt is primarily added for flavor and sometimes to preserve foods.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute outlines how you can reduce salt in your diet.

– Robert Preidt

SOURCE: University of California, San Francisco, news release, Feb. 11, 2013

Health News Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

By Tom Corwin

Fried chicken, salty ham and sweet tea have long been staples of Southern cuisine but it could also be the reason the region has a much higher stroke rate, research released Thursday found.

In findings presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that those with the greatest adherence to a “Southern” diet had a 41 percent increased risk of stroke. Conversely, those who had a “plant-based” diet heavy in fruits, vegetables and beans had a 29 percent lower risk of stroke, according to the study.

Known as the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke or the REGARDS study, researchers were trying to determine why Southerners have a 20 percent higher stroke risk and why stroke risk is higher among blacks.

“We thought diet was a likely target,” said Dr. Suzanne E. Judd, the lead researcher on the study and a nutritional epidemiologist at UAB.

Surveying more than 20,000 people nationwide about their eating habits, the analysis revealed five broad dietary patterns with one, the Southern diet, associated with higher risk of stroke and the plant-based with a lower risk of stroke. Blacks were much more likely to eat the Southern diet as well, which also adds to the racial disparity.

“It explains about 63 percent of the racial difference in stroke,” Judd said. “We’ve also looked at differences in hypertension because African Americans tend to have more hypertension than their white counterparts. Hypertension explains about 40-50 percent of the racial disparity and diet explains an additional 63 percent. The reason that those numbers overlap a little is obviously diet can lead to high blood pressure, which leads to a stroke.”

While fried food is a well-known dietary risk factor, the sweetened beverages should not be overlooked, she said.

“We’re hearing a lot more recently about the danger of sweetened beverages,” Judd said. “It’s important to minimize those as well.”

It is an eating pattern that Sunitha Zechariah sees often as clinical nutrition manager at University Hospital.

“That is the diet,” she said. “It is heavy with bacon and fried foods and sweets. That’s their everyday intake.”

And that is the problem – it is a steady dose of the diet, six or more times a week, that creates the problem where one or two times a month doesn’t seem to raise the risk, Judd said.

“It’s not a ‘never eat these foods,’ it’s just to minimize them,” she said.

That might be the next step, to try and persuade study participants to change.

“I definitely think it is a lifestyle intervention,” Judd said. “Because clearly we’re seeing from heart disease, we’re hearing it from cancer and now we’re hearing it from stroke that diet is an important factor in all of these diseases. So the big question becomes how do we get people to change their diet?”

That is easier said than done, Zechariah said.

“If someone is doing it six times a week, it is impossible to tell them, ‘Okay, tomorrow you’re not going to eat this any more,’ ” she said. Instead, the staff try to work with the patient to make small but meaningful changes to their lifestyle that they can live with.

“Instead of eating bacon five times a week, can you cut it down to two and add a fruit or a yogurt or oatmeal or some other healthier kind of breakfast?” she said.

It’s also important for patients to get active as well. Zechariah said.

“We emphasize exercise too,” she said. “That’s as important as this diet. It’s a package.”

Multiple Sclerosis: Multiple sclerosis is a central nervous system disease that damages the nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord, making it difficult for various signals, such as for muscle control, touch and vision, to travel. MS has varying, unpredictable symptoms, and they affect each person differently. Common symptoms include blurring of vision, numbness and tingling, muscle weakness and tightness, and problems with balance and mobility.

Clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) is a term that describes a first clinical episode (lasting at least 24 hours) with features suggestive of MS. Although patients usually recover, it is often the first sign of MS.  While there is currently no cure for MS, many researchers believe it is just a matter of time before one is found, especially as we find out more and more about the disease and the underlying biological mechanisms.  For instance, a study published in November 2012, describes how scientists working on lab mice found an early trigger for MS. It appears that a clotting protein that leaks across the blood-brain barrier, triggers an immune response and causes a toxic environment that damages nerve cells.

Childhood Obesity In US: According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), childhood obesity in the US has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years, to the point where more than one in three American children and adolescents is overweight or obese.

Annette Langer-Gould who is with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation in Pasadena and first author of the study, says in a statement from the American Academy of Neurology, of which she is a member: ”In our study, the risk of pediatric MS was highest among moderately and extremely obese teenage girls, suggesting that the rate of pediatric MS cases is likely to increase as the childhood obesity epidemic continues.”

The Study: For their analysis, Langer-Gould and colleagues used data from a large children’s health study in Southern California that included nearly a million children. They identified 75 children and adolescents diagnosed with pediatric MS/CSI between the ages of 2 and 18. The children’s Body Mass Index (BMI) had been measured before the disease symptoms appeared.  The researchers compared the children with MS/CSI with over 913,000 children who did not have the disease. They grouped the data according to four weight categories: normal weight, overweight, moderate obesity and extreme obesity. Nearly 51% of the children with MS/CSI were overweight or obese, compared to under 37% who did not have MS/CSI. When they analyzed the results, the researchers found that compared to girls of normal weight, the risk of developing MS/CSI was more than 1.5 times higher for overweight girls and nearly 1.8 times higher for moderately obese girls.

For extremely obese girls the risk of developing MS/CSI was nearly 4 times higher.  No such associations were found for boys, note the researchers. MS In Children Likely to Increase with Obesity Epidemic.  The authors suggest their findings show the childhood obesity epidemic is likely to lead to more cases of MS and CIS in children, and adolescent girls in particular.

Langer-Gould says: ”Even though pediatric MS remains rare, our study suggests that parents or caregivers of obese teenagers should pay attention to symptoms such as tingling and numbness or limb weakness, and bring them to a doctor’s attention.”  Funds from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders, and Kaiser Permanente Direct Community Benefit Funds helped pay for the study.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

Copyright: Medical News Today

NEW YORK — As criticism of sugary sodas intensifies, Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper are rolling out new vending machines that will put calorie counts right at your fingertips.

The move comes ahead of a regulation that would require restaurant chains and vending machines to post the information as early as next year, although the specifics for complying with the requirement are still being worked out.

“They’re seeing the writing on the wall and want to say that it’s corporate responsibility,” said Mike Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which advocates for food safety and nutrition.

Still, he noted that it was an important step forward.

“Currently, people don’t think about calories when they go up to a vending machine,” he said. “Having the calories right on the button will help them make choices.”

The American Beverage Association, which represents Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., said the calorie counts will be on the buttons people press to select a drink. Vending machines will also feature small decals, such as “Calories Count: Check Then Choose.”

The vending machines will launch in Chicago and San Antonio municipal buildings in 2013 before appearing nationally.

Without providing specifics, the American Beverage Association said the machines will also boost the availability of lower- and zero-calorie drinks.

“We have market research that says consumers really like this – they like choice, they like the ability to make choices,” said Susan Neely, the president of the industry group.

A mock-up of a new machine provided by Coca-Cola showed 20-ounce bottles of its flagship drink and Sprite inside vending machines, with labels on the buttons stating “240 calories.”

The decision to post calorie information follows the Supreme Court’s decision this summer to uphold President Obama’s health care overhaul, which includes a regulation that would require restaurant chains with more than 20 locations and vending operators with more than 20 machines to post calorie information.

McDonald’s Corp. also announced last month that it would begin posting calorie information on its menus nationwide. Like the soda industry, the fast-food giant said it was a voluntary decision and not spurred by the pending requirement.

There is no timetable for when all vending machines will be converted. Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper often work with third-party operators to provide drinks in vending machines; Neely said the companies will work with those outside operators to convert all machines over time.

Vending machines account for about 13 percent of sales, a figure that has remained relatively unchanged in recent years, according to Beverage Digest.

Soda consumption is often identified for playing a role in rising obesity rates, although other factors such as a lack of physical activity and overeating also contribute.

Last month, the New England Journal of Medicine published a decades-long study of more than 33,000 Americans that showed sugary beverages interact with genes that affect weight, meaning they are especially harmful to people who are hereditarily predisposed to weight gain.

Bonnie Sashin, who works as a communications director for a nonprofit in Brookline, Mass., says she stays away from sugary drinks, limiting herself to a can of Diet Dr Pepper or Diet Coke about twice a month. But she thought the move to display calorie information on vending machines was a positive development.

“Anything that helps us be more educated about calories is a good thing,” Sashin said.