Aging adults with overly-salty diets may be at an increased risk for stroke, according to a new study.

The findings add to a growing base of research that points to heavy salt intake as a major risk factor for stroke, according to a doctor associated with the study.

Of the nearly 2,700 older adults studied, those who took in well over the recommended level of sodium were almost three times as likely to suffer a stroke.

Much previous research has found that salt intake is positively correlated with an increase in blood pressure.

The link between a salty diet and future risk for heart attack and stroke had been less clearly established, however.

While blood pressure changes quickly, stroke and heart disease are long-term and complicated issues, which makes it difficult to establish a relationship between salt intake and the above complications.

The American Heart Association currently suggests people limit their sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams a day, as compared to the World Health Organization which advises 2,000 milligrams.

The people in the study, mainly Black and Hispanic New Yorkers with an average age of 69, averaged a significantly higher 3,031 milligrams of sodium a day.

Those who consumed more than 4,000 milligrams of salt at the start of the study were three times as likely to suffer a stroke as their counterparts who consumed less than 1,5000 milligrams.

The results do not definitively prove that salt was the cause, however, as people with high salt intake may also be unhealthier and have poorer overall health habits.

They do provide evidence for the suggestion that high salt intake is connected with risk of stroke, however.