American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 6, 1-7, Copyright © 1958 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Sodium Intake of the American Male: Implications on the Etiology of Essential Hypertension

¹ Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York

As an index of sodium intake, complete 24-hour urine collections were made on 71 ambulatory, working, male adults for periods ranging from 1 to 38 days. The mean and median 24-hour sodium excretions were about 180 meq/day—equal to approximately 10 g of sodium chloride. The minimal and maximal daily excretions of sodium were 63 and 406 meq which are equivalent to about 4 and 24 g of sodium chloride, respectively.

Such levels of sodium excretion indicate intakes of comparable magnitude, since these healthy subjects were presumably in sodium equilibrium. There is increasing evidence that high intakes of sodium are harmful: the West Indian Negroes who probably have high intakes of sodium from early childhood develop hypertension much more frequently than do the white people. Furthermore hypertension is virtually absent among races of people known to have a low-sodium intake. All of this evidence is in agreement with the author's thesis that sodium is one major etiologic factor in the development of essential hypertension in humans.

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