When people consider what causes high blood pressure, they often think of lifestyle factors, such as eating salty foods, lack of exercise or smoking. However, an unexpected source of salt might also be raising blood pressure for millions of people: the water they drink.
As sea levels rise, more and more salt water tends to infiltrate global freshwater sources. I’m a public health researcher, and this raised a question for my team: Could saltwater intrusion be increasing the risk of high blood pressure worldwide?
In our analysis of existing research, we found that people exposed to saltier drinking water tend to have significantly higher blood pressure and a greater risk of hypertension. This link, as expected, appears strongest in coastal areas where seawater is increasingly contaminating freshwater supplies.
