Excess salt in elderly women’s diet increases risk of fractures

If one eats salty food all the time, sooner or later it will have a negative effect on the heart, kidneys and blood vessels, causing permanent high blood pressure. But scientists have found out that this is not the only danger, which may be faced by people who prefer salty. In older women, excess sodium has been found to cause an increased likelihood of severe fractures.

To date, one of the known threats of excessive table salt intake has been an increase in the risk of developing arterial hypertension. According to Japanese scientists, the list can now be completed by another dangerous property of sodium chloride – an increased risk of serious bone fractures in women who are postmenopausal.

For this, researchers from the University of Shimane in Matsue, Japan, conducted an experiment in which 213 women aged 63 years were examined.

All subjects underwent blood tests, had their bone density measured, and answered all of the questions in the questionnaire. As a result, the scientists found that the group’s average daily salt intake was 5,211 milligrams. At the same time, among all the participants there was a group whose members liked salty food, so they consumed at least 7,561 milligrams of salt daily. This is the NaCl content of 7 Double cheeseburgers from McDonald’s fast food restaurant.

Researchers were able to find that the risk of limb fractures, including hip fractures, was 4.1 times higher in the “salt-loving” subgroup than in the subgroup with women whose salt intake was minimal.

It is worth noting that it is a common opinion among doctors that daily salt intake should not exceed 2,300 milligrams per day. However, many experts have concluded that people 50 and older should reduce this figure to at least 1,5000 milligrams per day.