Salt, obesity, endothelial function and cardiovascular disease risk study 2007

INTERVENTION: dietary intervention study with a low salt diet (50mmol per day)as the treatment. Volunteers will crossover to both treatments as randomly allocated with no washout between interventions.Participants are on either diet for 2 weeks, then immediately cross‐over to the other intervention. CONDITION: Obesity PRIMARY OUTCOME: Flow Mediated Dilatation (FMD): Using an ultrasound machine, we will assess the ability of the upper arm artery to become larger after being blocked with an external blood pressure cuff blown up to 250mm Hg for 5 minutes. SECONDARY OUTCOME: Blood Pressure INCLUSION CRITERIA: • 30 overweight and obese men and women (Body Mass Index 27‐40kg/m2)• Systolic blood pressure between 130 and 160 mmHg will be selected. • weight stable over the previous 6 months.