Americans love salt, and ingest much more than the recommended one teaspoon a day.  

"We are eating more than 10 times that amount,” Dr. Annet Kirabo with the Vanderbilt University Medical Center said.

That excess salt flips the internal switch, leading to hypertension and cardio disease.

“If anyone eats high salt for a long period of time, they're likely to have their kidneys damaged, and they're likely to have increased blood pressure,” Kirabo said.

During Kirabo's research study, blood pressure was monitored while participants were administered either a restricted salt diet, or one very high in salt. They discovered just one salty meal can set it off.

“You can go to a doctor, and the doctor tells you, ‘you don't have high blood pressure.’ And yet, you go home and eat a salty meal and get a stroke, or get this dangerous increase in high blood pressure,” Kirabo said.

It also creates what's called oxidative stress.

“Corresponding to salt intake, is a rapid increase in inflammation caused by oxidative stress and oxidation of lipids," Kirabo explained.

Reducing salt, exercising and staying active and involved with others helps, but most important is knowing if you are hypertensive.

Kirabo advocates for a precision medicine approach for those highly salt sensitive to minimize inflammation as well as prevent hypertension and cardiac disease.