Do you eat right and try to exercise regularly? Do you take dietary supplements or a daily multivitamin? Do you pay close attention to your intake of the minerals that your body needs? If so, the following study may interest you.

A report appearing in the journal Internal Medicine found that individuals who get too much sodium and too little potassium in their diet increase their likelihood of poor cardiovascular health outcomes.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based these findings on data collected in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Linked Mortality File on more than 12,600 Americans.

The team determined that male participants who smoked were the most likely to have too high a sodium intake and too little potassium. Scientists found that this ratio of the two elements dramatically increased the chances that an individual would develop adverse heart outcomes during the study.

By contrast, volunteers who got plenty of potassium and relatively little sodium had healthier cardiovascular function.