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Nature Medicine 10, 1163 - 1164 (2004)
doi:10.1038/nm1104-1163
Hypertension with a grain of salt
Ursula Danilczyk1 & Josef Penninger1
- IMBA, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Bohrgasse 3-5, 1030 Vienna, Austria. e-mail: josef.penninger@imp.univie.ac.at or e-mail: ursula.danilczyk@utoronto.ca
Abstract
It is common knowledge that high salt intake can contribute to high blood pressure, but the reasons have not been clear. Fresh insight emerges from mouse studies showing how smooth muscle cells in blood vessels respond to changes in salt balance (pages 1193–1199).
The observation that salt intake is associated with hypertension is thousands of years old. The Huang Ti Nei Ching, the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, probably from about the third century bc, described the 'hard pulse' resulting from a high salt intake.
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