What is it about?
The kidney is the main route through which salt is excreted from the body and plays a major role in determining the body's salt content. The salt content of the body strongly influences blood pressure by setting blood volume and by other routes. This paper discusses the impact that renal sodium excretion has on long term blood pressure.
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Why is it important?
A physiological understanding of the relationship between renal salt excretion and blood pressure may shed light on why hypertension is so common. Hypertension is the "silent killer", the major risk factor for cardiovascular and renal disease.
Perspectives
The WHO recommends 5 grams of salt per day as an upper limit tolerable to health. In most countries, the average daily intake of salt is almost double this. Does this habitually high salt intake contribute to the high mortality and morbidity associated with cardiovascular and renal disease and how does excretion of salt by the kidney fit into this picture?
Matthew Bailey
University of Edinburgh
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Pressure natriuresis and the renal control of arterial blood pressure, The Journal of Physiology, August 2014, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2014.271676.
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