(HealthDay News) — A high-salt diet significantly increases the risk for heart failure.

That’s the conclusion of Finnish researchers who found that people who consume more than 13,700 milligrams of salt a day — about 2.5 teaspoons — had double the risk for heart failure than low-salt consumers.

“High salt [sodium chloride] intake is one of the major causes of high blood pressure and an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke,” said researcher Pekka Jousilahti.

“The heart does not like salt,” said Jousilahti, a research professor at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki.

“High salt intake markedly increases the risk of heart failure,” he added in a news release from the European Society of Cardiology.

In addition to coronary heart disease and stroke, heart failure is a major cardiovascular disease globally, but the role of high salt intake in its development is unknown, Jousilahti said.