Maybe I shouldn't post this on pizza night (Friday)

Ok, I know this will bore most of you to tears, but I spend my clinic time teaching people with kidney failure how to eat low sodium.They have already ruined their kidneys with high blood pressure and we are trying to salvage the remaining function and help the blood pressure meds work better. This many years into blood pressure treatment, you would think they were taught somewhere along the line just how helpful a low sodium diet can be--but this rarely happens. (So much for "preventive medicine!")

From the NHLBI: "Those who do not have high blood pressure at age 55 face a 90 percent chance of developing it during their lifetimes. So high blood pressure is a condition that most people have at some point in their lives."  Many of us could completely avoid the hypertension (and risk of stroke, kidney failure, heart failure, heart disease...) if we didn't eat such high sodium (high salt) diets lifelong.  But I can't convince too many healthy people of this when their blood pressure is currently normal. Too much sodium (which is part of table salt) RUINS your blood vessels over the years. Today a study came across that looks at how even ONE high sodium meal affects the flexibility of your blood vessels.  (Ok, you can wake up--I'm off my soapbox now--I apologize!)