Research paper
Effect of sodium and potassium supplementation on vascular and endothelial function: a randomized controlled trial.
Study answer
What this study found
Adding potassium to the high-sodium meal attenuated the postprandial decline in endothelial function. The largest between-meal difference in flow-mediated dilatation occurred at 30 minutes, when FMD differed by -3.58 ± 0.85%, and the potassium-containing meal blunted the sodium-associated reduction in FMD. Potassium also altered low-flow-mediated constriction, while the meals did not differ significantly for central augmentation index, pulse wave velocity, or blood pressure over time. Serum potassium rose after the HKHN meal, with a maximum increase of 0.6 ± 0.3 mmol/L at 90 minutes,…
- Study & population
- Healthy normotensive adults in Australia were studied in a randomized crossover design.
- Intervention
- This randomized crossover trial compared a single oral high-potassium, high-sodium meal with a low-potassium, high-sodium meal.
- Key limitation
- The trial tested only acute, single-meal effects, so long-term cardiovascular implications remain unknown.
View source
Open PDFOriginal abstract
BACKGROUND It is known that increased potassium and reduced sodium intakes can improve postprandial endothelial function. However, the effect of increasing potassium in the presence of high sodium in the postprandial state is not known. OBJECTIVE We …