Effects of one method of intensive nutrition counseling on short term and long term sodium ingestion

A nutrition counseling method incorporating an intensive individualized low sodium diet instruction, a multidisciplinary team (physician, nurse, registered dietitian) effort, and immediate feedback on the level of sodium excreted in two 24-hour urine collections, with no nutrition follow-up counseling was carried out in 10 relatively young hypertensive subjects. Sodium intake was assessed via two 24-hour urine collections at baseline, during instruction phase, and at a 15 month follow-up phase.

The findings of this study showed a significant reduction in sodium excretion during the nutrition counseling phase. The 24-hour urinary sodium excretion was reduced from a mean baseline excretion of 151 mEq to a mean excretion of 28 mEq during the intensive counseling phase. During the follow-up phase with no nutrition counseling the subject’s mean sodium excretion levels rose significantly to 127 mEq per 24 hours, however not to baseline levels. An overall reduction was noted from the mean baseline sodium excretion level of 151 mEq per 24 hours to the mean follow-up phase sodium excretion level of 127 mEq per 24 hours, but this reduction was not statistically significant.