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NIH Asks Food Processors to Cut Back on Salt
Aired May 14, 2003 - 14:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A little bit of health news now. Even if you are healthy, new government guidelines may just raise your blood pressure today. So-called "normal" readings of blood pressure may now be considered warning signs.
CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with the details. A lot of people in this newsroom paying attention to this story.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, because if you were considered borderline before, maybe you are borderline heading in the wrong direction. Absolutely. What the National Institutes of Health is trying to do is they're trying to catch people as they're just creeping above the normal level so that they can keep them from having to go on blood pressure drugs.
Let's take a look at the numbers released today by the National Institutes of Health. The bottom line of what they're saying is that if your blood pressure is between 120/80 and 139/89, if you're somewhere in that range, you may have what they're calling now pre- hypertension. You don't have to go on drugs, but they are saying talk to your doctor, because your doctor will talk to you about life-style changes, improving your diet, losing weight if you are overweight, cutting the salt in your diet, those kinds of lifestyle changes, so that you don't have to go on drugs.
Some other findings from this NIH report is that if you are over age 50, the systolic number -- in other words, the top number in the blood pressure reading -- is more important than the diastolic number, than the bottom number. The diastolic number has often been thought of as being the more important one.
And the other finding: two or more drugs are better for most patients. In other words, that most patients with high blood pressure will need to take at least two drugs to get it under control. The NIH says for most patients, one of those two should be a diuretic. Those are cheap, old-fashioned drugs that have been out there forever, and often don't get a lot of attention because no one is making money off of them.
There is some dissent in this report. Some other -- another group of blood pressure doctors say, you know what, one drug really should be enough for most people. It's just a matter of finding the right drug.
PHILLIPS: Well, and there has got to be side effects to these drugs. COHEN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, you don't want to go on high blood pressure drugs unless you absolutely need to, and that's part of what this whole effort is about. High blood pressure drugs can cause insomnia, they can cause dizziness, they can cause fatigue, they can cause impotence, so you definitely don't want to go on these unless you need to.
PHILLIPS: And it can be hard to control in your diet because there is so much salt in the processed food, too.
COHEN: Oh, absolutely. People say, I'll control salt, I just won't shake it on my meal. Well, that not necessarily going to help you very much. There is so much salt in processed foods that the NIH is calling today on food manufacturers to cut the amount of sodium in processed foods by one half within the next decade. We'll see if they are able to do that.
PHILLIPS: Then you wonder how it's going to taste.
COHEN: Absolutely. You do wonder. Salt is there because it tastes good.
PHILLIPS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.
COHEN: Thanks, Kyra.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 14, 2003 - 14:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A little bit of health news now. Even if you are healthy, new government guidelines may just raise your blood pressure today. So-called "normal" readings of blood pressure may now be considered warning signs.
CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with the details. A lot of people in this newsroom paying attention to this story.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, because if you were considered borderline before, maybe you are borderline heading in the wrong direction. Absolutely. What the National Institutes of Health is trying to do is they're trying to catch people as they're just creeping above the normal level so that they can keep them from having to go on blood pressure drugs.
Let's take a look at the numbers released today by the National Institutes of Health. The bottom line of what they're saying is that if your blood pressure is between 120/80 and 139/89, if you're somewhere in that range, you may have what they're calling now pre- hypertension. You don't have to go on drugs, but they are saying talk to your doctor, because your doctor will talk to you about life-style changes, improving your diet, losing weight if you are overweight, cutting the salt in your diet, those kinds of lifestyle changes, so that you don't have to go on drugs.
Some other findings from this NIH report is that if you are over age 50, the systolic number -- in other words, the top number in the blood pressure reading -- is more important than the diastolic number, than the bottom number. The diastolic number has often been thought of as being the more important one.
And the other finding: two or more drugs are better for most patients. In other words, that most patients with high blood pressure will need to take at least two drugs to get it under control. The NIH says for most patients, one of those two should be a diuretic. Those are cheap, old-fashioned drugs that have been out there forever, and often don't get a lot of attention because no one is making money off of them.
There is some dissent in this report. Some other -- another group of blood pressure doctors say, you know what, one drug really should be enough for most people. It's just a matter of finding the right drug.
PHILLIPS: Well, and there has got to be side effects to these drugs. COHEN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, you don't want to go on high blood pressure drugs unless you absolutely need to, and that's part of what this whole effort is about. High blood pressure drugs can cause insomnia, they can cause dizziness, they can cause fatigue, they can cause impotence, so you definitely don't want to go on these unless you need to.
PHILLIPS: And it can be hard to control in your diet because there is so much salt in the processed food, too.
COHEN: Oh, absolutely. People say, I'll control salt, I just won't shake it on my meal. Well, that not necessarily going to help you very much. There is so much salt in processed foods that the NIH is calling today on food manufacturers to cut the amount of sodium in processed foods by one half within the next decade. We'll see if they are able to do that.
PHILLIPS: Then you wonder how it's going to taste.
COHEN: Absolutely. You do wonder. Salt is there because it tastes good.
PHILLIPS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.
COHEN: Thanks, Kyra.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
