Heart Diseases: strong vessels - long life

There is a flood of tips from medical, nutrition and public health authorities about the changes we should make our lifestyle to reduce, among other health problems, the risk of hypertension. Is high on the list of their recommendations, where we will provide guidance to the amount of salt to reduce our food. It is generally recommended that our daily intake of sodium should be limited to no more than 2,400 milligrams per day - it was equivalent to about a teaspoon full - and over our entire daily food intake is. Geared

However, like many dietary recommendations to improve our health, it now appears that it could be, or indeed is a potential drawback of this approach to reduce our sodium intake reduced - if we are too much. Recent research shows that may have a reduction in our intake of sodium very serious consequence of the reduction in our consumption of iodine.

Iodine is an essential component in the production of the hormones produced by our thyroid gland. In children, a well-functioning thyroid gland is not only for their physical and mental development of crucial importance. In adults, regulate the hormones of the thyroid the metabolism - the process that our basic cellular functions, one of the main controls, which in the course of energy from food.

For many generations, thyroid disease - the under-functioning of the thyroid hormone production, which was due to lack of adequate iodine levels - a major health problem not only in the U.S. but also in other countries. This was a relatively common health problem, it was finally discovered, was mainly due to the low levels of natural iodine in the many local water supplies. In areas where iodine does not occur naturally in soils of watersheds, or occurred only at very low levels, whole communities suffer from degrees of thyroid disease.

The Recommended Dietary Allowance [RDA] of iodine for adults is 150 micrograms per day. To ensure the entire population in the world to introduce the recommended amount of iodine many countries were very successful public health interventions by adding the iodine and salt. This does not affect the taste of salt, has no harmful side effects, and adds only marginally to the cost of salt production. But in many countries including the U.S., has only added salt iodine. The salt is used in commercial food production - and that's where we get most of our daily salt intake of - usually do not contain iodine.

By reducing the amount of salt in the kitchen, we use our own food, and reducing our use of the salt shaker on the table, we are reducing our iodine intake. The lower levels of iodine intake by Stephen Cann of the University of British Columbia in 2006, published research, lead to significant increases in the amount of iodine deficiency related thyroid problems, the whole population.

He claims that the health surveys in the 1970s resulted in the U.S. study were that 1 in 40 Americans suffer from moderate to severe levels of iodine deficiency. But show frightening similar surveys in the 1990s that they now number 1 in every 9 of the U.S. population increased.

This unexpected result creates a dilemma for health authorities and education programs will be necessary to advise people about the need to monitor salt intake in order to ensure that they are cared for an adequate iodine intake.

Author: John Vanse

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The Better Health Guide

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