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U.S. diets high in sodium are responsible for 33 deaths per 100,000 in the U.S., according to a new scientific study on the health effects of diet.
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So if we start with 100 000 people, feed them all a high sodium diet, in 3000 years, they'll all be dead? Of course I'm being glib, and these numbers do matter--if 33 in 100 000 were dying from polio, and we knew it, and knew how to prevent it, which we do, of course these numbers would matter.
Speaking to the main thing sodium is accused of, where there's the most evidence, though faulty--personally, switching to mostly animal-based foods, sparing not the salt shaker, my blood pressure went from borderline hypertension in my mid-30s, 140/90 and probably climbing, given my family history, to usually "ideal"--around 100-110/65-70, most times I've measured, over the last 15 years.
Of course a personal anecdote doesn't do it here--but it's not just a personal anecdote, it's a fairly common one, and a common clinical observation from medical professionals like Dr. Westman.
Also--even if you can't go from N=1 personal experience to populations, you also can't go the other way. That is, you can't ignore individual results. You can't cure scurvy by feeding lemons to people who don't have scurvy, although you might make it less prevalent in a population by making lemons more popular. Especially a population that's heavy in pre-modern day sailors and what not.
And in that vein, what a low carb or ketogenic diet has apparently helped me with
--high blood pressure
--various joint and muscle chronic pain. I used to have to sleep only flat on my back, stomach or sides was too uncomfortable. Used to wake up with a painful, frozen neck, couldn't turn my head even.
--used to have sort of "panic" attacks, around the same time each day. For a while they were in the early morning, later they changed to around 1 am, ruining my sleep. i'd wake up in sort of an altered stated, sort of numb and clammy, and slightly panicky, I'd have to sort of pace back and forth in my room because of the anxious energy, until things calmed down. Then there'd be a moment when things sort of came back "online," that numbness would be reversed, little nagging pains that I wouldn't normally be aware of were accentuated--but everything was, even just normal non-painful tactile sensation were stronger from having been off for a bit. That went away with low carb, I'd been having those things since my mid-20's (around the time the more schizophrenic symptoms from my schizoaffective bipolar started ramping up) so they lasted a good ten years.
--speaking of which, when I went to a more ketogenic version of the diet, a bit stricter than Atkins when it comes to both carbs and protein, I stopped hearing voices. Lately I've noticed that strict adherence to the higher fat version keeps me from being paranoid, depressed, and anxious. For a couple months in the winter, I was sort of rapid-cycling, turned out I just needed to be stricter. What happens to 33 out of 100 000 or even 1 out of 10 if you could find a study showing that doesn't really matter to me as an individual. Knock on wood, because I've only recently discovered how effective more strict compliance is versus anxiety, but I seem to be able to pretty much turn it on and off with dietary manipulation.
--weight loss does matter, and has been my experience. The more ketogenic version of the diet has been better for maintenance for me, preventing outrageous binges that occur once I'm at a lower weight, on a higher protein version of low carb. But the higher protein version worked very well versus binges while losing the first 20 pounds, binges didn't re-appear until I dieted down another ten to fifteen pounds with a bit of higher protein, lower fat calorie restriction.
I've been successfully maintaining a large weight loss, by calorie tracking/counting and then some IF here and there, and everything was going good-up until a few months ago, when my weight started creeping up even while being pretty mindful of calories. And then the bloat, which is a newer issue. 
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