Salt Is OK for People With Heart Failure: Review
Not this old scare again. It has long ago been shown that salt is harmless.
I have written previously on the salt phobia here:
http://jonjayray.com/short/salt.html
And here:http://jonjayray.com/short/salt2.html
And here:http://jonjayray.com/saltsum.html
Salt restriction, a long-standing recommendation for patients with heart failure, has no proven clinical benefits, according to a review published Wednesday in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation.
While some studies reported possible improvements in quality of life and functionality, the review author, Dr. Paolo Raggi from the University of Alberta, wrote that there is no evidence that severe sodium restriction reduces mortality and hospitalization in patients with heart failure.
The review evaluated randomized controlled trials conducted from 2000 to 2023. Most were small, and a single large trial concluded early due to futility.
“Doctors often resist making changes to age-old tenets that have no true scientific basis; however, when new good evidence surfaces, we should make an effort to embrace it,” Dr. Raggi said in a news release.
How Does Salt Affect the Heart?
Heart failure is a chronic condition that occurs when the heart muscles cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen.
Reduction in salt intake is recommended for heart failure because salt draws water. More salt in the blood can increase blood volume, thereby increasing blood pressure, which can then cause further damage to blood vessels and the heart.
Severe reductions in salt intake can also cause a drastic decrease in blood volume, which can be harmful.
Scientists cannot agree on how much salt should be reduced, and this discrepancy is due to differences in data interpretation, Dr. Raggi wrote.
It has also been difficult to conduct a proper study evaluating the long-term effects of salt restriction since low-salt diets are challenging for patients to adhere to, and salt intake is hard to measure.
Several prominent health organizations, including the American Heart Association (AHA), recommend that patients with heart failure consume under 2 grams (about half a teaspoon) of salt daily. The author said that this recommendation likely arose from the conclusions of several trials, including the famous DASH-sodium trial, which found that people who consumed less than 1.5 grams of salt daily had lower blood pressure.
While proponents of the DASH-sodium trial support its findings and recommendations, dissidents argue it was too short and that such salt restrictions are unlikely to be sustainable.
Dr. Raggi wrote that moderating salt intake would benefit people consuming high levels of salt. However, just how much salt should be reduced is unknown. Quality of life does improve with lower salt intake; however, there is no clinical evidence that it results in fewer cardiovascular events and deaths.
While salt restriction clearly lowers blood pressure, especially in hypertension patients, the effect appears to wane with time.
“It has been estimated that tens of thousands of patients (the numbers varying depending on the baseline risk profile of the population enrolled) would have to be followed for 5 to 10years [sic] to prove that a strict sodium intake is associated with a 15% reduction in cardiovascular events. Such a proposition seems unlikely to materialize,” the author wrote.
Even the Cochrane review, seen as the gold standard in research, yielded an inconclusive result.
“The Cochrane review concluded that there was insufficient power to show an effect on mortality, although there might be a reduction in cardiovascular events with sodium restriction,” Dr. Raggi wrote.
He noted that none of the studies included in the Cochrane review and the many studies before it advised that salt intake should be as low as authorities such as the AHA suggested. Therefore, he concluded that questions about appropriate salt intake remain unanswered.
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Thai Farm Workers Returning to Israel May Boost Struggling Agriculture
Thailand’s labor ministry announced on June 24 that it would resume sending workers to Israel, potentially offering a boost to the country’s agricultural sector, which was hard hit by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Almost 30,000 foreigners—including 10,000 Thais and about 10,000 to 12,000 Palestinians—worked on Israel’s farms until the Hamas attack. Some were killed, others were taken hostage, and most of the remainder fled.
Thailand said it hoped to have more than 10,000 return by the end of the year.
The attack devastated Israel’s agriculture, hitting as it did Israel’s fertile zone east of the Gaza Strip.
Many farmers fled. Those who didn’t, or who came back to tend their fields, found their hands tied by a lack of laborers to weed, prune, and otherwise tend crops.
Many were called up into the military reserves.
The Thais return is critical, Ayal Kimhi, professor of agricultural economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The Epoch Times in an email.
Israeli farmers generally regard them as their best foreign farm workers.
Palestinians who lived in Gaza or the West Bank and commuted to jobs in Israel are no longer allowed in the country.
The Thai government’s agreement is essential because the two governments have a formal labor agreement to avoid Thai workers being exploited by private manpower companies, Mr. Kimhi said.
The war’s damage to Israel’s farms has been pervasive.
The border areas in the north and south account for a quarter of Israel’s farm production and much of its fruit and vegetable production.
A southern farmer, Asher Tamsut, took The Epoch Times for a tour of one of his tomato greenhouses in Moshav Ami'oz in March.
Across six acres, the plants were bedraggled due to a lack of pruning and bore few tomatoes. The rows were overgrown with weeds. The plants, normally 15 feet tall, had been topped to make them less work to tend for the few workers he had remaining, he said.
The field normally produces 250 tons of tomatoes in a harvest, but its crop planted just before Oct. 7 yielded only three tons, he said.
He had already lost about $1.6 million.
According to the World Bank, agriculture, forestry, and fishing account for 1.3 percent of Israel’s GDP. That percentage has been declining in recent years, as in most advanced countries, Mr. Kimhi said.
Israel’s GDP was about $525 billion in 2022, but lost nearly 20 percent during the 4th quarter of 2023 compared with the previous year.
It was its sharpest decline since its pandemic decline of almost 30 percent during 2020’s 2nd quarter.
Israeli economists saw a recovery in the 1st quarter of 2024, but it had still not caught up with economic performance before the Hamas attack.
In addition, the nation has spent an estimated $80 billion on the war so far, an extra financial strain.
About 33,800 Israelis worked in agriculture, 0.8 percent of its labor force, Mr. Kimhi said, in addition to 15,000 Palestinians and 25,000 other foreigners.
As of 2022, Israel exported about 13 percent of its agricultural production—mostly fruits and vegetables— while importing grains and oils.
Right now, it’s the peak of the peach season in Israel, Mr. Kimhi said.
“The fruits are relatively small because the pruning was not done optimally,” he said. “Also up north the security situation still prevents many farmers [from approaching] their plantations.”
Hezbollah has since Oct. 7, 2023, steadily attacked northern Israel with rockets, anti-tank missiles, and, lately, suicide drones.
That has forced the formal evacuation of 61,000 Israelis from 43 communities within 5 kilometers of the border and the voluntary departure of thousands more, according to the Alma Research and Education Center, a strategic institute specializing in Israel’s northern frontier.
Some farmers return regularly to tend their farms but may expose themselves to attack in areas where people may have only 15 seconds to get to shelter if air-raid sirens sound.
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"Tractor Supply" company ends ‘woke’ DEI, climate change policies after boycott campaign
A major farm supply retailer said it will eliminate DEI roles, end its carbon emissions goals and cut ties to an LGBTQ advocacy group following a social media campaign calling for the firm to revoke its “woke” policies.
Tennessee-based Tractor Supply — an 85-year-old company with 2,250 stores — made the decision after conservative commentator Robby Starbuck called for a boycott over the past three weeks on X.
“We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them,” Tractor Supply said in a statement on Thursday. “We have taken this feedback to heart.”
The retail chain — which sells home improvement equipment, livestock, and agricultural supplies for farmers and pet owners — said it will stop sponsoring Pride festivals and cut ties to LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign.
It will also “eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment,” the company said.
Instead, Tractor Supply will beef up its support for veteran causes, emergency response agencies, animal shelters, state fairs, rodeos and farmers’ markets, the company said.
Starbuck claimed a victory on X, saying in an eight-minute long video, “We have extracted the largest concessions in the history of boycotts.”
He applauded Tractor Supply for ending its submission of data to the Human Rights Campaign, which Starbuck said “has nothing to do with human rights; it has everything to do with injecting wokeness and the LGBTQ agenda into corporate America.”
Human Rights Campaign said it has worked with Tractor Supply for years to create inclusive policies and slammed the company for pandering to “far right extremists.”
“Tractor Supply Co is turning its back on their own neighbors with this shortsighted decision. LGBTQ+ people live in every Zip code in this country, including rural communities,” Eric Bloem, vice president of corporate advocacy, told the Post. “We are shoppers, farmers, veterans and agriculture students.”
Tractor Supply also said it will eliminate its carbon emissions goals and instead focus on land and water conservation efforts.
The company previously aimed to achieve net zero emissions in operations by 2040, increase people of color at the management level and increase business with diverse suppliers, according to earlier coverage by the Wall Street Journal.
“We will continue to listen to our customers and Team Members,” Tractor Supply said in a statement. “Your trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance, and we don’t take that lightly.”
The policy pivot is one of the strongest corporate reversals of progressive initiatives yet, but it is not the first time customers have used their buying power in recent years to sway company stakes.
Bud Light sales tanked after the beer company launched an ad with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney last year.
Target lost $10 billion in market valuation in a 10-day period last year when customers boycotted the company after it launched its Pride collection, which included clothing for children.
A Target shareholder filed a lawsuit last year against the company after their shares lost $20,000 during the Pride collection controversy.
https://nypost.com/2024/06/28/business/tractor-supply-ends-woke-dei-climate-change-policies/
***********************************************If Trump is elected tariffs will rise
Business strategists and economists watched every Biden stumble in the debate with Donald Trump knowing it signalled substantial curbs to the global free trading system that has dominated the world in recent decades.
The US will become a tariff protected society and the rest of the world will likely follow.
And at the weekend the strong vote for Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally, means France is headed to migration policies that have a similarity to those of Donald Trump and there will be less emphasis on Europe and more on France.
Marine Le Pen’s policies are not the same as Trump, but she is heading in a very similar direction and the combination has world implications, especially as both want the Ukraine war to end.
Back to the US, and global central bankers were watching the Biden stumbles knowing that a Trump presidential election victory would almost certainly herald a very different interest rate setting environment.
And in Beijing they also watched the stumbles. China is looking at further refining its plans to adapt to Trump’s plan to impose big tariffs on US imports of Chinese goods.
The Chinese plans would be unveiled in the four day third plenum of the Communist Party’s Central Committee starting in two weeks to map out major economic strategies for the next 5 to 10 years.
China’s top officials, provincial party secretaries, senior generals and heads of state owned enterprises will assemble in Beijing for the third plenum at a time when Trumpism is spreading and there is considerable turmoil in China.
In essence, if elected as President, Trump will impose a 10 per cent tariff on all imports, probably including those from countries where the US has a free trade agreement like Australia.
But the tariff on Chinese exports to the US would be 60 per cent.
Trump has learned from past “mistakes”, so any tariff regime change must be widespread and simple.
In effect he is imposing a GST-type tax but only on imports and he is seriously considering distributing the windfall tariff gains to the community via a reduction or even an elimination of income tax. Many other countries will follow the US lead.
In office, Biden did not abandon all the Trump tariff measures but is not planning a similar action to the 2025 proposed Trump tariffs.
Australia introduced the GST in July 2000 and it caused an immediate rise in prices. The Trump tariffs will have the same impact although the front runner in the US presidential campaign claims that importers will reduce their prices and there will be no significant rise.
Trump will almost certainly be anxious that the Federal Reserve does not increase interest rates in response to the tariffs and likely tax cuts.
Trump has already criticised some of the decisions of the Federal Reserve under chair Jerome Powell. If Trump becomes President he will almost certainly want to have conversations with the Federal Reserve Chair.It would be the start of a potentially less independent US interest rate setting system.
Given the deliberations of the US Federal Reserve impacting interest rates around the globe, this has the potential to be a major change to the way global interest rates are established.
When it comes to company tax Trump plans to lower the rate from 21 to 20 per cent . Biden plans to increase company tax to 28 and plans a wide range of personal tax increases which will not be popular.
The combination of Trump’s lower taxes, the likely investment in new plant to replace imports plus a lower labour availability as a result of the expulsion of immigrants, creates a cocktail for continued inflation even if we set aside the GST-style price rise that will follow the initial tariff introduction.
If the US Federal Reserve ignores any presidential protests there will be high interest rates which will maintain the strength of the American dollar and nullify some of the impacts of the tariff.
In China, the third plenum will tackle the trend in the global supply chain to reduce dependence on China and the fierce competition with the United States and other Western nations.for markets and technology.
China has signalled that it will aim to expand international technology exchanges, attract and retain more overseas talent, and be more active in global technology governance.
A priority will be to build what it calls a “a globally competitive” environment for technological innovations.
We are looking at a China that may respond by attacking Taiwan but may also respond by becoming a globally competitive source of new technology.
Australia will have a number of difficult decisions in that environment including nuclear power where the Chinese have developed technology around molten salt cooled thorium power for use in ships and submarines as well as power stations.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
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