Rubin R J, Bladen C
Hypertension. 1982 Sep-Oct;4(5 Pt 2):III152-6. doi: 10.1161/01.hyp.4.5_pt_2.iii152.
Hypertension affects from 17% to 25% of all Americans. Because of its fundamental charge to help protect the public health, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is substantially concerned with the condition. Additionally, hypertension represents a significant source of underwriting risk to which HHS is exposed in its role as health insurer of the poor and the elderly. HHS has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in hypertension research, development and testing of treatment regimens, and education of health care providers and consumers. However, much of the etiology of hypertension still eludes us. Sodium's apparent importance as a "causal" agent to the development of hypertension, and in its treatment, has waxed and waned over the past several generations; research to date has not yet finally settled the issue. Is sodium or some other cation the key? While research on this issue continues, HHS is currently faced with deciding whether and how to require inclusion of sodium content in nutrition labelling. In the debate, attention has to be given not only to the current best evidence on sodium; additional issues of consumer choice, costs, and education are also of importance.
高血压影响着17%至25%的美国人。由于其保护公众健康的基本职责，美国卫生与公众服务部（HHS）对这一疾病极为关注。此外，高血压是HHS作为穷人和老年人的健康保险人所面临的重大承保风险来源。HHS已在高血压研究、治疗方案的开发与测试以及医疗服务提供者和消费者的教育方面投入了数亿美元。然而，高血压的许多病因仍未被我们所了解。在过去几代人中，钠作为高血压发病和治疗的“致病”因素的明显重要性时起时落；迄今为止的研究尚未最终解决这个问题。是钠还是其他某种阳离子是关键？虽然关于这个问题的研究仍在继续，但HHS目前面临着决定是否以及如何要求在营养标签中包含钠含量的问题。在这场辩论中，不仅要关注关于钠的当前最佳证据；消费者选择、成本和教育等其他问题也很重要。
