In 1997, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial showed that a diet high in fruits, vegetables and lowfat dairy products could help reduce blood pressure, especially in people with hypertension.
Four years later, the DASH team, led by Associate Professor of Nutrition Frank Sacks of the School of Public Health, is back fighting high blood pressure.
In a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, Sacks and his team show that combining the DASH diet with a reduction in salt intake can further reduce high blood pressure, especially in those with hypertension.
"This is pretty much a definitive result that now needs application," Sacks says.
The team, which consisted of researchers at Harvard, Duke, Johns Hopkins and Louisiana State, tested 412 people, assigning half of them to the DASH diet and half of them to a normal diet. The subjects then ate foods with high, medium and low sodium for 30 consecutive days.
The results showed that combining the DASH diet with a low sodium intake reduced blood pressure by an average of 7.1 points in healthy patients, and by 11.5 points in patients with hypertension.
Reduced salt intake led to a decrease in blood pressure both in patients who were on the DASH diet and those who were on the control diet.
Likewise, patients using the DASH diet, which Sacks said includes "a lot of vegetables, whole grains, fruits, fish and poultry instead of red meat, and fewer sugary desserts and drinks," showed lower blood pressure than those on the normal diet at every level of salt intake.
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