[ti:The Argument Over Salt and Health] [ar:Shirley Griffith] [al:Health Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:03.02]Health Report. [00:04.14]Last month we reported [00:07.06]about a study that showed [00:08.93]eating even a little less salt [00:11.35]could greatly help the heart. [00:13.40]The study was published [00:15.71]in the New England Journal of Medicine. [00:18.57]The scientists [00:20.62]used a computer model [00:22.42]to predict how just three grams [00:25.41]less salt a day would [00:27.71]affect heart disease [00:28.95]in the United States. [00:31.13]The scientists said [00:33.06]the results would be [00:34.80]thirteen percent [00:35.98] fewer heart attacks, [00:37.54]eight percent fewer strokes, [00:40.09]four percent fewer deaths [00:42.95]and eleven percent fewer [00:45.81]new cases of heart disease. [00:48.30]And two hundred forty billion [00:51.22]dollars in health care savings. [00:53.71]Researchers said it could [00:57.01]prevent one hundred thousand [00:59.37]heart attacks and [01:00.93]ninety-two thousand deaths every year. [01:04.16]The researchers were [01:06.28]from the University of California, [01:08.83]San Francisco, Stanford University [01:12.25]and Columbia University. [01:15.23]They and public health professionals [01:18.34]in the United States are interested [01:21.77]in a national campaign [01:23.57]to persuade people [01:25.56]to eat less salt. [01:27.67]Such campaigns are already [01:30.22] in place in Britain, [01:32.09]Japan and Finland. [01:35.51]However, some scientists say [01:38.06]such a campaign is an experiment [01:41.23]with the health of millions of people. [01:44.47]Michael Alderman is among the critics. [01:49.01]He is a high blood pressure expert [01:52.06]and professor at Albert Einstein College [01:56.47]of Medicine in New York. [01:58.71]Doctor Alderman says [02:01.01]that eating less salt results [02:04.13]in lower blood pressure. [02:06.36]But he says studies have not [02:09.97]clearly shown that lowering salt [02:12.96]means fewer heart attacks or strokes. [02:16.75]And he says salt has [02:19.80]other biological effects. [02:21.92]He says calling for reductions [02:25.27]in the national diet [02:26.70]could have good effects, [02:29.07]but it could also [02:30.75]have harmful results. [02:33.17]He says there is not [02:35.79]enough evidence either way. [02:38.15]Another critic is David McCarron, [02:42.44]a nutrition and kidney disease expert [02:45.30]at the University of California, Davis. [02:49.10]He and his team looked [02:52.14]at large studies of diets [02:54.63]in thirty-three countries. [02:55.88]They found that most people [02:59.61]around the world eat [03:01.97]about the same amount of salt. [03:04.90]Most of them eat more salt [03:07.88]than American health officials advise. [03:11.18]Doctor McCarron says [03:13.79]the worldwide similarity suggests [03:16.90]that a person's brain [03:18.89]might decide how much salt to eat. [03:21.94]Both Doctor McCarron [03:24.24]and Doctor Alderman have [03:26.17]connections to the Salt Institute, [03:28.66]a trade group for the salt industry. [03:31.39]Doctor Alderman is a member [03:34.19]of an advisory committee. [03:36.25]But he says he receives [03:38.61]no money from the group. [03:40.60]Doctor McCarron is paid [03:42.84]for offering scientific advice [03:45.20]to the Salt Institute. [03:47.69]And that's the VOA Special English [03:51.36]Health Report, [03:52.23]written by Caty Weaver. [03:54.28]I'm Shirley Griffith.