New strategy for controlling hypertension: Should boosting potassium be part of efforts to control high blood pressure?
· Medical Xpressedited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Andrew Zinin
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High blood pressure can be better controlled with a strategy that combines boosting potassium intake with reducing sodium, according to a new report. High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects more than 1.28 billion adults worldwide and is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Public health guidelines underscore sodium reduction as the best way to reduce hypertension and cardiovascular disease risk.
In the new report, a team of physicians and health experts propose that dietary effects on hypertension will be greater with a complementary strategy of increasing potassium intake, which can serve as a salt substitute.
This new understanding of potassium's critical role and efficacy in reducing blood pressure calls for a paradigm shift to consider sodium and potassium together when developing public health recommendations.
"It is time to view dietary interventions holistically because food components interact and physiology is integrative across systems," said Naomi Fukagawa, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine emerita at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and first author of the report.
"Growing evidence shows that increasing dietary potassium as well as reducing sodium intake work together to better manage hypertension."
The peer-reviewed report, which appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, examines the basis for current intake recommendations for sodium and potassium, strategies for sodium reduction and potassium enhancement, implementation challenges, and future directions for research and policy to accelerate public health progress.
Excessive sodium intake and insufficient potassium consumption are major modifiable contributors to elevated blood pressure. While average sodium intake remains above recommendations, potassium consumption is often "far below optimal levels in both developed and developing nations," according to the authors.
Potassium-rich foods include fruits, vegetables, legumes and dairy. Because there is a maximum level at which potassium salts can be added to foods before a metallic flavor is detected, food makers must carefully balance sodium and potassium in their products.
The authors conclude that "dietary sodium reduction is a foundational strategy for hypertension prevention and management. However, new evidence supports a broadening of the current approach that focuses solely on sodium reduction and provides equal emphasis on increasing potassium intake."
Publication details
Naomi K Fukagawa et al, Rethinking the impact of dietary sodium and potassium on blood pressure to advance public health, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2026.101396
Journal information: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Key medical concepts
High Blood PressureCardiovascular Diseases
Clinical categories
Nutrition & Healthy eatingCardiologyPreventive medicineCommon illnesses & PreventionHealthy living Provided by University of Vermont Who's behind this story?
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