More on Dietary Sodium and Blood Pressure-Reply

In Reply. —Dr Stamler and colleagues state that we made several factually incorrect statements in our letter to JAMA , which was written in response to letters commenting on our recent meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of dietary sodium restriction. They cite examples of errors based on information contained in articles that were not yet published at the time our meta-analysis and our letter were published, and then conclude incredulously that our viewpoint is biased. Our comment on the Intersalt study results stems from statements made in the 1988 article. 1 For example, the original Intersalt report states that there was no relationship between median sodium excretion and prevalence of hypertension when the 4 geographically isolated populations were excluded. 1 We can only take such statements at face value. The critical point in TOHP surely is the primary prevention of hypertension by dietary means rather than changes in BP at selected intervals; this