Children's Health & Fitness ? Need To Cut Back On Salt Intake For ...

June 27th, 2012 by Len Saunders

From The Wall Street Journal?..

The declining health of America?s children has a lot to do with a culprit few even suspect: salt. In Salt Kills (Health Now Books, 2012), Dr. Surender R. Neravetla, a heart surgeon and the Director of Cardiac Surgery at Springfield Regional Medical Center explains in easy-to-understand language why salt can be even more of a problem during a child?s formative years than it is later on in adulthood. In addition, it sets children up for increased stroke and heart risk later in life.

Most people know that salt contributes to high blood pressure ? that in turn inflicts irreversible damage on multiple organ systems, including the heart. But few think of this as a threat to children. A report from St. George?s University of London, which revealed a connection of salt intake to high blood pressure in kids as young as four years old, shows what a mistake that is. Yet it?s an easy mistake to fix. A second report from that same institution, which summarized 13 different studies among children, concluded that the drop in blood pressure from not adding salt in infancy dramatically reduces blood pressure and cardiovascular problems as children grow older.

A new study published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension shows the extensive amount of work that needs to be done when it comes to bringing this problem under control. Pediatric hypertension-related hospitalizations in the United States have nearly doubled, from 12,661 in 1997 to 24,602 in 2006. During that same time period, inpatient care for hypertensive children reached an estimated $3.1 billion, a 50 percent increase that doesn?t even include outpatient charges nationwide.

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Entry Filed under: Health / Fitness Articles

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