Carl Heneghan

There's a problem with the abstract and people know this and there are issues.

Is this being done deliberately or is it just like incompetence a bit and we're not thinking about these issues?

But I think it's very difficult to understand the decision as the paper is currently written.

And it could be done a lot better.

Well, look, now I'm going to get this because this is obviously selected by the BMJ research editors.

Well, again, I'm not going to go into the background, but this is the effective dose and duration of reduction in dietary sodium on blood pressure levels.

Now, this is an incredibly important issue.

And this paper is well done and basically comes to a conclusion like the magnitude of blood pressure lowering achieved with sodium reduction showed a dose-response relation and was greater for older populations, non-white population, those with higher blood pressure.

Okay, great.

But I actually want to know, based on this paper, what can I advise an individual and how do I translate the evidence?

And that's a bit that was incredibly difficult for me.

I had to do more maths because it said each 50 millimole reduction in 24 hour sodium excretion in the longer term studies beyond two weeks gave rise to a two millimetre mercury of blood pressure.

OK, so that's helpful.

But what do I tell a patient?

Do I actually go to them and say, hmm, you should reduce your sodium by 50 millimoles?

Well, look, here's where it gets.

So I had to do the maths again.

And I'm sure somebody will be writing and telling me I'm all over the show, but I've rounded it up.

So five grams of salt is about 2,000 milligrams of sodium.

100 millimoles of sodium is roughly about equal to that 2,000 milligrams of sodium.