Effect of a mineral salt diet on 24-h blood pressure monitoring in elderly hypertensive patients

Abstract

The influence of a mineral salt on 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring was studied in 20 elderly hypertensive subjects residing in an old peoples home. Ordinary table and cooking salt was substituted with a special Na-reduced, K-, Mg-, and l-lysine HCl-enriched mineral salt (Pansalt^®) for 6 months. Antihypertensive therapy was uninterrupted. An ambulatory BP monitor (Suntech Accutracker) measured BP every 20 min during the day and every 30 min at night, before and 6 months after starting the diet. Nine patients (45%) decreased both systolic and diastolic BP significantly: systolic BP fell from 154.92 ± 33.67 mm Hg to 143.45 ± 53.1 mm Hg (P ⩽ 0.01) during the daytime from 6 am to midnight; and from 139.80 ± 32.84 mm Hg to 137.87 ± 31.17 mm Hg (P ⩽ 0.01) from midnight to 6 am. Diastolic BP fell from 85.34 ± 24.85 mm Hg to 70.29 ± 18.31 mm Hg (P ⩽ 0.01) during the daytime from 6 am to midnight; and from 77.1 ± 22.92 mm Hg to 67.76 ± 15.63 mm Hg (P ⩽ 0.01) at night. Blood pressure in the other 11 subjects showed no improvement. Heart rate also fell in the subjects, from 69.44 ± 21.62 beats per minute (bpm) to 66.94 ± 11.51 bpm (⩽0.01) during the day, and from 61.28 ± 12.82 bpm to 60.43 ± 10.33 bpm (P ⩽ 0.01) during the night. It is concluded that decreased intake of Na and increased intake of both K and Mg can be useful in controlling high BP.