Sodium intake and gastric cancer.

To test the hypothesis that excessive intake of sodium chloride is a factor in gastric carcinogenesis, urinary excretion of sodium and creatinine was measured in Colombian subjects. Age, sex, weight, and height regression slopes for creatinine excretion were more similar in Colombia than in other countries. Sodium/creatinine (S/C) ratios correlated with 24-h urinary excretion of sodium revealed higher sodium excretion in populations with higher gastric cancer rates. The S/C ratios were not affected by circadial rhythms, making it possible to use single urine samples to investigate interpopulation differences in sodium excretion.