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

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(R)) 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 mmHg to 143.45 +/- 53.1 mm Hg (P less than or equal to 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 less than or equal to 0.01) from midnight to 6 am. Diastolic BP fell from 85.34 +/- 24.85 mmHg to 70.29 +/- 18.31 mm Hg (P less than or equal to 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 less than or equal to 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 (less than or equal to 0.01) during the day, and from 61.28 +/- 12.82 bpm to 60.43 +/- 10.33 bpm (P less than or equal to 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.