Study: Too Much Salt Consumption May Damage Brain Health

Eating foods that are not salty are not good. But consuming too much salt is also not good for health, such as high blood etc.

Special brain, recently a study says that consuming too much salt was not good for brain health. It was a study conducted by Costantino Iadecola, MD, a neurology and neuroscientist professor at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City

In a recent study, researchers looked at the effects of consuming too much salt on mice. The rodents were given excessive salt in their diet, even 8 or 16 times.


After consuming the amount of salt for 8 to 12 weeks, mice showed signs of memory impairment and thinking problems. They find it difficult to distinguish new objects that are known before, difficult to get through the labyrinth, and can not even build a nest.

"We translate that to humans for the activities of everyday life, and that's what we would call a severe cognitive or dementia disorder," Iadecola said when quoted from WebMD.com.

Iadecola explains, the effect of too much salt on health is the problem of memory, and disorientation.

Despite having a bad effect on health, Iadecola claimed not to know how much maximum salt content is safe to eat. "It's mostly hidden in processed foods or restaurant food, I'm sure it's too underestimated," he said.

Furthermore, Iadecola mentioned the effects of eating too much salt is not direct. Based on observations in mice, excess salt triggers a response in the small intestine and ultimately produces a large amount of Th17, a type of white blood cell that affects the immune system.

Th17, continued ladecola, causes an increase in the level of other components of the immune system, a protein called IL-17.

Eating foods that not salty are not good. But consuming too much salt also not good for health

Then, what about the human body? ladecola says the same thing will happen to humans. When the body produces too much IL-17 it will disrupt the production of nitric oxide. When the nitric oxide level drops, the blood vessels can not relax and cause less blood flow to the brain.

"You need nitric oxide for the brain to work properly," says Iadecola.

Despite having a negative effect on health, the negative effects of consuming too much salt can be removed easily. Simply reduce the salt intake level to normal limits.

"Once mice return to their normal diet, their brain function returns to normal as well, suggesting that problems caused by eating too much salt can be reversed once you cut back, and, of course, this problem can be prevented by avoiding a high salt diet in the first place , "said Pinky Agarwal, MD, a neurologist specializing in movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, WA.

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