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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
A high-salt diet is not only bad for one's blood pressure, but also for the immune system. This is the conclusion of a current study under the leadership of the University Hospital Bonn. Mice fed a high-salt diet were found to suffer from much more severe bacterial infections. Human volunteers who consumed an additional six grams of salt per day also showed pronounced immune deficiencies. This amount corresponds to the salt content of two fast food meals. The results are published in the journal "Science Translational Medicine".
Five grams a day, no more: This is the maximum amount of salt that adults should consume according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). It corresponds approximately to one level teaspoon.
In reality, however, many Germans exceed this limit considerably: Figures from the Robert Koch Institute suggest that on average men consume ten, women more than eight grams a day.
This means that we reach for the salt shaker much more than is good for us. After all, sodium chloride, which is its chemical name, raises blood pressure and thereby increases the risk of heart attack or stroke.
But not only that: "We have now been able to prove for the first time that excessive salt intake also significantly weakens an important arm of the immune system," explains Prof. Dr. Christian Kurts from the Institute of Experimental Immunology at the University of Bonn.
Journal Reference
Katarzyna Jobin, Natascha E. Stumpf, Sebastian Schwab et al. A high-salt diet compromises antibacterial neutrophil responses through hormonal perturbation [$], Science Translational Medicine (DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aay3850)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Monday March 30 2020, @04:21PM (1 child)
if you have functioning kidneys and drink plenty of water, your body will homeostatically maintain salt at the correct level....*so long as* you are healthy.
If you have co-morbidities e.g. diabetes , COPD, obesity, your body needs to work hard to maintain homeostasis , and there for the levels of ingestion need to be nearer to "required".
Add in exercise, and you'll achieve massive salt imbalance rectification - 6 lbs of water after 1 hour running? My running group and I measured it for a test amongst ourselves.
Animal studies are only any good for molecules where the interaction is equivalent and largely comparable.
Mouse physiology is highly unlikely to be useful for long acquired disease, due to the sheer size of humans (we can destroy more cells and still be functioning ) vs mice (keel over at many things!) - oh and the 50 million years of divergent evolution....
Journals should be required to put the study organism in the title, so that we can choose to ignore the clinical inferences...
/quarantined rant
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday March 30 2020, @08:58PM
Not really. Homeostasis will move to correct the levels, but you will end up at a less healthy steady state.