THE SALT FREE REGIMEN AND VASCULAR HYPERTENSION

A quarter of a century has elapsed since Ambard and his collaborators in France advanced the thesis that there is a direct relationship between the retention of sodium chloride and arterial tension. One outcome of this was a widespread interest in the physiologic effects of so-called salt free regimens. The opinions as to their value in medical treatment have been widely divergent. At first such dietary innovations were instituted in cases of hypertension without much consideration of the type of blood pressure changes that were under consideration. Furthermore, it must be said in all fairness that all too often the exclusion of sodium chloride from the diet was at most a crude approximation. Common salt enters so largely into present-day cookery that reduction of the salt intake in food involves special consideration from a culinary standpoint. The judgment of a dietitian and a food chemist as to what represents a