The sodium contained in salt regulates the amount of fluids in our body and cooperates in the transmission of nerve impulses, but its excess can cause problems for our health. Now, two studies tested in animals show that a high concentration of salt favors the development of diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) .
The first of the studies, presented at the conference ‘The salt of life’ during the 40th National Congress of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (SER), show that, in vitro, a high concentration of salt helps the generation of Th17 cells , cells with a pathogenic phenotype related to many autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. For the experiment, the researchers fed a group of genetically modified mice a diet rich in salt, and a diet whose food contained only one teaspoon of salt per day, to the second group of mice that had also been induced Experimental Encephalomyelitis. Autoimmune (very similar to multiple sclerosis). The experts found that the animals that had consumed more salt got sick earlier and their symptoms of the disease were more severe .
The second study, carried out by Loreto Carmona, scientific director of the Musculoskeletal Health Institute in Madrid, has found a “very consistent” association between Rheumatoid Arthritis and people who consume a lot of salt . “The salt consumed is related in some way to the development of Rheumatoid Arthritis,” says Carmona.
For their research, they collected experimental data in cultured cells and in mice that revealed that one of the pathways that causes inflammation is regulated by a sodium channel; therefore, by common salt.
“At the moment it has been possible to elucidate that salt and RA are associated, since there are more RA among those who consume more than eight grams of salt per day than among those who consume less than three grams,” says the researcher.
