Too much salt more than doubles the risk of heart failure, a new study shows.

Finnish scientists tracked more than 4,000 adults, comparing their dietary habits with cardiac problems.

They found those who consumed the most salt were 110 per cent more likely to develop heart failure - one of Britain’s major killers.

Research has long linked salt to high-blood pressure.

But the new study showed that it does serious damage to the heart, even when scientists accounted for high-blood pressure.

Researchers tracked 4,630 healthy adults aged between 25 and 64 for an average of 12 years.

Lead researcher Professor Pekka Jousilahti, from the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, said: “The heart does not like salt. High salt intake markedly increases the risk of heart failure.

“This salt-related increase in heart failure risk was independent of blood pressure.”

Heart failure is the leading cause of hospital admissions among pensioners.

More than half a million people in the UK suffer with heart failure, which means the heart struggles to pump blood around the body.

Around half of patients die within five years of diagosis.

The findings were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona.

Researchers divided participants into five groups, depending on their salt intake, by measuring levels in their urine.