An Investigation to Determine the Practical Minimum Salt Requirements Under Stress.

摘要

Today, a widely used approach in controlling high blood pressure is the restriction of salt intake. The Kempner diet, for example, is sufficiently low in sodium (150 mg/day) to be effective, but it is unpalatable. It not only has a flat taste, but it also has accompanying anorexia, weakness, and impairment of memory during the first few weeks on the diet, resulting in sufficient malaise to make patient acceptance poor. The use of thiazide diuretics is an alternative method of controlling body sodium. It is so widespread that some physicians are not too concerned about their patients' intake of sodium if they are on diuretics. Since a suitable diet for mice had to be established before salt intake could be evaluated as a potential influence in psychosocially induced hypertension, the goal of this pilot study was to determine the necessary ingredients for a nutritionally balanced diet in which the level of sodium could be easily controlled.