Restricting salt intake is considered a key component of heart failure treatment, but restricting it too much may actually worsen the outcomes for people with a common form of the condition, suggests research published online in the journal Heart.

Younger people and those of Black and other ethnicities seem to be most at risk, the findings indicate.

Salt restriction is frequently recommended in heart failure guidelines, but the optimal restriction range (from less than 1.5 g to less than 3 g daily) and its effect on patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction isn't clear, as they have often been excluded from relevant studies.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, which accounts for half of all heart failure cases, occurs when the lower left chamber of the heart (left ventricle) isn't able to fill properly with blood (diastolic phase), reducing the amount of blood pumped out into the body.

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