The George Institute's reputation as a global leader in the prevention of cardiovascular disease has been further recognised with the awarding of $3M by the National Health & Medical Research Council to establish a Centre of Research Excellence (CRE), to develop ways to switch the world's salt supply from regular (sodium) salt to potassium-enriched salt - and ultimately prevent millions of strokes and heart attacks every year.
Led by Professor Bruce Neal, Executive Director at The George Institute and Professor of Medicine at UNSW Sydney, the CRE will generate new knowledge, address critical evidence gaps and explore real-world implementation barriers to equip countries with the tools needed to make the switch. By supporting action across policy, healthcare and supply chains, the CRE will drive sustainable changes for better heart health.
Regular table salt is made up of 100% sodium chloride. A potassium-enriched salt replaces some of the sodium with potassium, which has been shown to lower blood pressure.
The program of work will encompass researching:
- The safety and efficacy of potassium-enriched salt in high-risk groups (including people with kidney disease and those taking blood pressure medications).
- Ways to scale up salt substitution by updating government policy, food industry standards, and healthcare guidelines.
The research builds on a major trial led by Prof Neal that showed by switching from regular salt to potassium-enriched salt (25% potassium chloride, 75% sodium chloride) it was possible to achieve a sustained reduction in sodium intake, a sustained increase in potassium intake, lower blood pressure and protect against heart attack and stroke.
With 92% of participants still using the salt substitute after five years, the trial showed that this could be a practical strategy, since potassium-enriched salt looks and tastes like regular salt and can be used 'like-for-like' in both cooking and seasoning.
"Both excess dietary sodium and insufficient potassium are established causes of high blood pressure, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease but, despite efforts by governments and the medical community over the last decade to reduce the amount of salt in diets at a population level, little progress has been made.
Through the NHRMC funding of a CRE, our ambition is for multiple countries with large populations to substantially progress in making the switch within five years, and to build momentum towards a full global switch over the following decade
By:Professor Bruce Neal
Executive Director, The George Institute for Global Health
Professor Neal was also the recipient of an Investigator grant for related research in Australia, earlier this year. That work - a collaboration with the Australian Stroke and Heart Research Accelerator (ASHRA) to translate Australian discoveries into real-world solutions - aims to address the limited global supply of food-grade potassium chloride for the manufacture of potassium-enriched salt. By leveraging the mining sector, a new Australian industry could be established to affordably manufacture potassium-enriched salt for export.
