WSC 2025 | The impact of sodium and potassium consumption on hypertension and stroke risk
Bruce Neal, MB ChB, PhD, FRCP, FAHA, FAAHMS, The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, Australia, discusses the impact of dietary sodium and potassium intake on blood pressure and stroke risk. He highlights that excessive sodium consumption and insufficient potassium consumption are key factors contributing to high blood pressure and increased stroke risk. This interview took place at the 17th World Stroke Congress (WSC) in Barcelona, Spain.
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Transcript
Blood pressure is the single biggest cause of stroke. But blood pressure in itself is caused by a number of different factors. And two of the key ones are how much dietary sodium you eat and how much dietary potassium you eat. So sodium is the main composition of salt. And we eat now about four grams of sodium, which is about 10 grams of salt each day. We evolved our hominid ancestors on about one eighth to one tenth the amount of that salt each day...
Blood pressure is the single biggest cause of stroke. But blood pressure in itself is caused by a number of different factors. And two of the key ones are how much dietary sodium you eat and how much dietary potassium you eat. So sodium is the main composition of salt. And we eat now about four grams of sodium, which is about 10 grams of salt each day. We evolved our hominid ancestors on about one eighth to one tenth the amount of that salt each day. And the impact of that salt is to progressively drive up our blood pressure throughout our life and greatly increase our risk of stroke. At the same time, potassium, we used to eat about 10 grams a day during human evolution, but we currently only eat about a quarter of that. And insufficient potassium is another cause of high blood pressure. So high potassium, we need higher potassium, lower sodium, and then we’ll get lower stroke risk.
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