Around 20,500 stroke deaths and 31,400 heart disease deaths per year could be prevented if people significantly reduced the amount of salt in their diets, researchers writing in Hypertension report.
In the UK, the current public health recommendations are to reduce salt intake from 9 to 12 g a day to 5 to 6 g a day.
The researchers, from St George's Hospital Medical School in London, said even a small reduction in salt intake of 10%, or one gramme, would save 6,000 lives a year and prevent a further 6,000 strokes and heart attacks which people survive.
Campaign group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), which was involved in the research, said the food industry had to cut the amount of salt in manufactured products.
They said that would be the easiest way to reduce people's salt intake without them noticing.
Feng He, one of the researcher's who wrote the paper, said: "Our research demonstrated that there is a dose response to salt reduction - the larger the reduction in salt intake, the larger the reduction in blood pressure.
"From the well-researched link between blood pressure and deaths from stroke and heart disease, we were able to calculate how many lives would be saved by reducing salt intake.
"We showed that reducing salt intake by nine grammes per day, for example, from the current average of 12 grammes per day to three grammes per day, would prevent around 20,500 stroke deaths and 31,400 heart disease deaths per year. This equals almost 52,000 lives that could be saved each year."
Professor Graham MacGregor, chairman of Cash, who also co-wrote the report, said the current six gramme target was based on what the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition deemed to be feasible in the UK.
He said: "We believe that the targets should be set according to the maximum potential health benefits, not according to the convenience of the food industry.
"Whilst the current six grammes per day target will save many lives and prevent many from suffering strokes and heart attacks, we need to start planning to reduce salt intake by a further three grammes per day."
"This would reduce all strokes in the UK by one-third and all heart disease by one-quarter of the current levels."
Reference
'Less salt "would save thousands" BBC Online 12th December 2003.