[Arguments demonstrating a low dietary intake of potassium in the genesis and perpetuation of arterial hypertension].

The failure to find correlation between sodium intake and blood pressure in within population studies led to a search for other environmental factors. Bunge postulated that potassium would antagonize the effect of sodium. Japanese studies suggested that a high potassium intake might block some hypertension. Meneely hypothesized, and demonstrated in the rat, that potassium would partially block sodium-produced hypertension. The low-salt tribes are also high -potassium tribes. Walker, in Baltimore, showed a negative correlation between potassium and blood pressure, and Langford and Watson showed a significant correlation between Na/K ratio in the urine and diastolic blood pressure. Five studies in the United States have shown that blacks, who have much more hypertension than whites, excrete much less potassium. Studies on the habitual diet patterns of high and low potassium intake individuals have just begun. Changing potassium intake by dietary change has proven difficult.