Effect of salt loading on the cardiovascular response to stress in adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated, in nonnotenslre adolescents, three accepted risk factors for essential hypertension (EH): stress, dietary salt, and parental history (genetic risk). The cardiovascular response to mental stress was evaluated before and after salt loading in eight subjects without, and in seven with, a family history (FH) of EH. The effect of salt loading on the FH positive group was to increase significantly the stressinduced systolic and diastolic pressure while the heart rate response decreased. Salt loading resulted in no change in cardiovascular response to stress in the FH negative group. © 1981 American Heart Association, Inc.