Most people with high blood pressure aren't skipping the salt shaker in favor of a salt substitute, according to a new study.
Incredibly few Americans use salt substitutes, essentially waving aside a simple and effective way to manage their blood pressure, researchers reported Thursday at an American Heart Association meeting in Baltimore.
"Overall, less than 6% of all U.S. adults use salt substitutes, even though they are inexpensive and can be an effective strategy to help people control blood pressure, especially people with difficult-to-treat high blood pressure," lead researcher Yinying Wei said in a news release. She is a doctoral candidate in applied clinical research and hypertension at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Salt substitutes replace some or all of the sodium with potassium, which tastes similar to regular salt, researchers said in background notes.
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