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Originally Posted by onesnowyowl
It's likely that quitting smoking would be more effective than cutting salt out of his diet.
The NIH also says that changing your diet completely is more effective than just cutting out sodium (as not all people with high blood pressure are sensitive to sodium).
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Oh quitting smoking would fix a lot, but I figure he's sick of hearing that lol. It makes your artery walls less stretchy, which does contribute to BP.
And changing your diet to include low salt foods would help significantly. Na[+], the ion, is what's directly responsible for blood pressure (I have a test on this tomorrow, trust me :P). Changing your diet to include healthier foods will help, yes, but much of that is about changing the salt content. High salt causes blood volume to increase, thus causing high BP, thus causing the kidneys to have to work harder to get rid of the excess volume. Some people's kidneys, I'm sure, can handle it, but since he's 23 and his BP is still pretty high, I think his are just working in overdrive, and still can't quite cut it.
Plus, the reason they say "low salt" all the time is because a lot of the things people eat are high in salt and preservatives, like for example those frozen dinners. So they focus on the salt factor, because that really IS what causes the problems, but a healthy diet will help even more, because your kidneys and your body in general will be able to handle things better.
In short, a healthy diet is better for you across the board, but if push comes to shove, most likely cutting salty foods out of your diet will lower your BP
Oh and to the OP, you also might want to try something called "Lite" salt. It's KCl instead of NaCl, and K (potassium) doesn't stay in your blood, and therefore keeps your BP under control. Tastes just like real salt too
and you can get it iodized if you want.