The Kennebec Journal reports:
The CDC is committed to trying to get the U.S. population to those levels, down from the current average consumption of 3,400 milligrams, wrote CDC Director Thomas Frieden and his colleagues.
That goal may be dangerous, said Michael H. Alderman, the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Hypertension, who pulled together eight reports and commentary that explored all angles of the debate. The relationship between heart disease and sodium “has a ‘J’ shape,” with both low and high levels creating risk, he said in a telephone interview.
GH05T: I’ve had some attacks of “mad cow disease”, but I was always able to get away from them. 😉
Funny how often those equal and opposite health scares turn out to be sponsored by competing classes of product.
Fish is full of mercury!
Oh yea? Beef is full of Mad Cow Disease!
Are eggs good for me or bad for me this week?
For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. For every heath scare there is an opposite and equal health scare.
You’re giving them too little credit here. The problem with higher salt intake recommendations is that they are attainable. If large groups of people follow their recommendations and the described diseases still occur then they have a problem. Lowering the recommendation to ridiculous amounts guarantees deficiency. One of the first symptoms of deficiency is cravings. When people give in to cravings and are over the recommended dosage, then the CDC can point to whatever disease they want and say “we told you so”. They’ve already accomplished this feat with obesity. A person can suffer or die from any number of diseases and, if they happen to be overweight, the populace will quickly believe it was ultimately lack of willpower that killed them. Never mind that being overweight is in fact a symptom of most of the diseases it is claimed to cause.
There are many motivations for blaming people for their own medical problems. Most relevant here is the ammunition it gives the nanny statist and the free meal it throws to the insurance companies that can deny coverage if you don’t follow their ridiculously strict guidelines.
“It is unfortunate that the CDC lags behind a 16th century alchemist in theoretical comprehension.”
Yes it is very unfortunate. However, they have the same level of comprehension of such things as a 20,000 BC witch doctor. The important thing to them is they make a statement and the fact they make the statement is supposed to force reality to follow their words (aka. reality is optional for them). “Do no harm” is not within their ability to comprehend. If the patient suffers or dies because of their treatment, it is the patient’s fault. The patient simply did not believe enough in their infallible pronouncements.
This is the ultimate nature of Government controlled medicine exactly because Government is first, last, and only FORCE!
The relationship between heart disease and sodium “has a ‘J’ shape,” with both low and high levels creating risk, which is EXACTLY what one would expect when applying Paracelsus’ Principle to an essential nutrient:
“Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.”
Too high a dose makes it a poison; too low a dose creates a deficiency. It is unfortunate that the CDC lags behind a 16th century alchemist in theoretical comprehension.