Researchers suggested many recommended medication regimens exceed a healthy daily sodium limit.
"[The public] should be warned about the potential dangers of high sodium intake from prescribed medicines [and sodium-containing medications] should be prescribed with caution only if the perceived benefits outweigh the risks," Researchers at the University of Dundee and University College London stated in a British Medical Journal news release.
The team also suggested that all sodium-containing medicines should be labeled the same way that nutrition facts are required for food products.
The sodium is usually included in these medications because it helps the body with absorption, but little is known about its negative side effects.
The research team compared the rate of cardiovascular events (non-fatal heart attack, non-fatal stoke, or vascular death) in people who had taken sodium-rick medicine and those who had taken the sodium-free versions of those drugs between the years of 1987 and 2010.
The study encompassed 1.2 million patients; over the course of the research there were 61,000 cardiovascular incidents.
The researchers took into account other cardiovascular risk factors such as "body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, and history of various chronic illnesses and use of certain other medications."
The team found the study subjects taking medicines enriched with sodium were 16 percent more likely to suffer a cardiovascular event than those taking medications free of sodium.
The team also found individuals on the sodium-rich drugs were seven times more likely to develop high blood pressure. The overall risk of death was 28 percent higher than those not taking extra sodium.
The researchers admitted the finding is controversial, and further research will be needed in order to confirm the conclusion; but the results "are potentially of public health importance."
"Prescription of these sodium-containing formulations should be done with caution, and patients prescribed them should be closely monitored for the emergence of hypertension," the researchers stated.
