People who significantly reduce the amount of salt in their diet could lower the chance of developing cardiovascular disease by 25 percent, U.S. researchers reported Thursday.

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School also found that a reduction in salt intake could lower the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by up to 20 percent.

This research provided some of the strongest objective evidence to date that lowering the amount of salt in the diet reduces the long term risk of future cardiovascular disease, said the authors of the report published in the online edition of the British Medical Journal.

Researchers followed participants from two trials completed in the nineties which analyzed the effect reducing salt in the diet had on blood pressure.

All the participants had high-normal blood pressure (pre-hypertension) and were therefore at greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.The first trial included 744 people and was completed in 1990. The second involved 2382 people and ended in 1995.

In both trials participants reduced their sodium intake by approximately 25 percent to 35 percent alongside a control group who didn't cut back on their salt intake.

The reduction in the risk of developing cardiovascular problems as a result of the sodium reduction intervention was substantial.

The results showed these pre-hypertensive individuals were 25 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular problems over the course of the 10 to15 years after the trial. There was also a 20 percent lower mortality rate.

Source: Xinhua