Go Bananas for Female Heart Health

“Health recommendation has centered on limiting salt consumption however that is tough to attain when our diets embody processed meals,” he mentioned. “Potassium helps the physique excrete extra sodium within the urine. In our examine, dietary potassium was linked with the best well being positive factors in ladies.”

The examine included near 25,000 British women and men between 40 and 79 years of age who had been a part of a analysis examine between 1993 and 1997. Participants accomplished questionnaires about their life-style habits and their blood stress and urine samples had been analyzed.

Urinary sodium and potassium had been used to gauge dietary consumption.

The researchers discovered that as potassium consumption in ladies went up, blood stress went down. And as potassium consumption rose, so did ladies’s blood stress.

Every 1-gram improve in day by day potassium was related to a 2.4 mm Hg decrease systolic blood stress for these ladies. No hyperlink between potassium and blood stress was present in males.

Participants had been adopted a median of 19.5 years (that means half had been adopted longer, half for a shorter time). During that point, 55% of contributors had been hospitalized or died attributable to coronary heart illness.

After adjusting for such components as age, intercourse, physique mass index, use of tobacco, alcohol and lipid-lowering medicine, diabetes and prior coronary heart assault or stroke, researchers discovered that folks with the best potassium consumption had a 13% decrease danger of heart-related issues in comparison with these with the bottom consumption.

Men had a 7% decrease danger of coronary heart issues and girls an 11% decrease danger, the examine discovered. The quantity of salt within the eating regimen didn’t affect the connection between potassium and coronary heart occasions in both intercourse, researchers mentioned.

The findings had been printed July 22 in European Heart Journal.

“The outcomes counsel that potassium helps protect coronary heart well being, however that girls profit greater than males,” Vogt mentioned in a journal information launch. “The relationship between potassium and cardiovascular occasions was the identical no matter salt consumption, suggesting that potassium has different methods of defending the guts on prime of accelerating sodium excretion.”

The World Health Organization recommends adults devour at the least 3.5 grams of potassium and fewer than 2 grams of sodium (5 grams of salt) day by day.

A 4-ounce banana has 375 mg of potassium; 5.5 ounces of cooked salmon has 780 mg; an almost 5-ounce potato has 500 mg, and 1 cup of milk has 375 mg.

“Our findings indicate that a heart healthy diet goes beyond limiting salt to boosting potassium content,” Vogt said. “Food companies can help by swapping standard sodium-based salt for a potassium salt alternative in processed foods. On top of that, we should all prioritize fresh, unprocessed foods since they are both rich in potassium and low in salt.”

More info

Dietary Guidelines for Americans affords extra info on potassium-rich meals.

SOURCE: European Heart Journal, information launch, July 22, 2022