Highly saline drinking water threatens residents of the coastal region with hypertension, participants heard at a seminar on Monday.
The country's coastal population consumes twice as much salt – just by drinking water – than the World Health Organisation recommends, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) has found.
The World Health Organisation says the maximum daily salt intake should be 5 grams, but in coastal areas the high salinity of drinking water has meant that locals are taking in 200% the maximum daily amount.
The icddr,b revealed its findings at a seminar titled “Drinking Water Salinity and Hypertension in Coastal Bangladesh” held on Monday morning at the institution's auditorium.
It said ingesting too much salt causes high blood pressure and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. The coastal population is especially at risk, seminar participants heard.
The study found that increases in blood pressure could be quickly reversed if people switched to a low-salt alternative water source, such as rainwater or distilled water.
The study found that ingesting 100mg less sodium per litre of drinking water could lower the odds of developing hypertension by 16%.
