Salt, blood pressure and cardiovascular disease

The chemist Sir Humphrey Davy (1778–1829) said: ‘Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose that our views of science are ultimate … that our triumphs are complete … that there are no new worlds to conquer’ (Riegels and Richards, 2011). This invites the heart-warming inference that scientific progress is not so much dependent on consensus as on debate, argument – which can generate both heat and light – and even controversy.

One area of current controversy is the nature of the relationship between salt, blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, and I found it puzzling to read an editorial, whose author, in addressing the issue of population strategies for salt consumption, stated: ‘When apparent dogma is challenged, we should speak not of controversy but rather accede to the all-encompassing expression of so-called scientific uncertainty, so as to avoid unbecoming rhetoric’ (O'Brien, 2016).