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Agroup of conservative Republicans on Wednesday joined Democrats in a procedural vote to stop the advancement of a plan to expand state and local tax (SALT) deductions. The procedural vote to consider SALT legislation failed 195-225, with 18 conservatives joining the Democrats, according to The Hill. Moderate Republicans from New York, California, and New Jersey have sought to expand the $10,000 SALT deduction cap imposed in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Supporters of the cap have argued it serves to incentivize states and local governments to reduce spending. New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler had sought to double...

One in three Australian adults has high blood pressure (hypertension). Excess salt (sodium) increases the risk of high blood pressure so everyone with hypertension is advised to reduce salt in their diet. But despite decades of strong recommendations we have failed to get Australians to cut their intake. It's hard for people to change the way they cook, season their food differently, pick low-salt foods off the supermarket shelves and accept a less salty taste. Now there is a simple and effective solution: potassium-enriched salt. It can be used just like regular salt and most people don't notice any important...

The U.S. Embassy in London released an official statement to cool off this heated debate.We learned back in junior high history class that Americans and Brits have quite the contentious relationship regarding tea. And as of this week, when Michelle Francl, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, released her new book, she stirred the pot even more — so much so that the U.S. Embassy in London felt it necessary to step in. So what's Francl's proposition that's making waves across the pond? That your cup of tea is missing one very important ingredient that...

As COVID and its health effects move into a fourth year, those who become infected may be searching for remedies to improve their respiratory symptoms and keep them out of the hospital. A new study determined that both a low- and high-dose saline regimen appeared to be associated with lower hospitalization rates compared to controls in SARS-CoV-2 infections. "Between 2020 and 2022, individuals aged 18–65 years with positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 infection were randomly selected to undergo low- or high-dose saline regimens for 14 days," says Sebastian Espinoza. "The low- and high-saline solutions consisted of 2.13 grams and 6...

Scientists have found evidence of a cosmic airburst event around 1650 BCE that devastated the ancient city of Tall el-Hammam in the southern Jordan Valley, causing extreme temperatures and depositing high concentrations of salt. This event, potentially inspiring the biblical tales of Sodom and Jericho’s destruction, might have also led to a mass abandonment of cities in the region during the “Late Bronze Age Gap.”In the Middle Bronze Age (about 3,600 years ago or roughly 1650 BCE), the city of Tall el-Hammam was ascendant. Located on high ground in the southern Jordan Valley, northeast of the Dead Sea, the settlement...

Over the last several years, they have worked nonstop to ease the tax burden of their high-income constituents.. In the grand ballroom of American politics, Democrats have long waltzed to the melody of progressivism while ridiculing Republicans' preference for outdated tax cut tunes. Ironically, they don't want to pay for their style of big government with higher taxes on ordinary Americans, which their expansionary ambitions would require. Instead, they loudly proclaim that they want to tax the rich. It remains to be seen how true this is. Indeed, while Democrats profess their devotion to social justice and fight against income...

An remarkably well-preserved child's shoe from the Iron Age has been found in Austria.The discovery was made by archaeologists from the German Mining Museum in Bochum during excavations at Dürrnberg near Hallein, in an area that was mined for rock salt during the Iron Age...The entire shape of the shoe, as well as string used to fix it onto the child's foot, can still be seen.It is made of leather and is the equivalent of a child's 12.5 size shoe today...Shoes dating from the Iron Age have been found before but the child's shoe is of particular significance, the press...

What Is Salt? Salt is a seasoning that can flavor food and act as a preservative. It’s about 60% chloride and about 40% sodium. Nearly all unprocessed foods -- think veggies, fruits, nuts, meats, whole grains, and dairy foods -- are low in sodium. The salt that we do eat helps relax and contract muscles, lends a hand with nerve impulses, and balances the minerals and water we take in. How Much Salt Do You Need? Our body needs only a small amount of sodium. We should get about 1,500 milligrams of it every day. But the average American takes...

Researchers have found that the cause of a common type of high blood pressure originates in a tiny benign nodule, present in one-in-twenty people with hypertension. The nodule produces a hormone, aldosterone, that controls how much salt is in the body. The new discovery is a gene variant in some of these nodules which leads to a vast but intermittent overproduction of the hormone. The variant affects a protein called CADM1 and stops cells in the body from "talking" to each other and saying that it is time to stop making aldosterone. An issue for doctors is the fluctuating release...

Dementia is defined as the loss of cognitive functioning—including thinking, remembering, and reasoning. Currently, the treatment satisfaction for dementia is among the lowest and no drug therapy is available to cure the disease. Cognitive impairment has been linked to the consumption of excess table salt. The involvement of angiotensin II (Ang II)—a hormone that plays a key role in regulating blood pressure and fluid balance—and its receptor "AT1," as well as that of the physiologically important lipid molecule prostaglandin E2 PGE2 and its receptor "EP1" in hypertension and neurotoxicity is well-recognized). To this end, a recent study evaluated the aspects...

Molten Salt Reactors enjoy 15 minutes of fame 11 June 2014   Print Email   A next-generation fast breeder reactor design is gaining popularity in research circles.On 6 June, UK researchers Jasper Tomlinson and Trevor Griffiths won £75,000 in Technology Strategy Board funding (including £20,000 of contributions-in-kind) to carry out an eight-month feasibility study.The project, which will be managed by mechanical engineer Rory O'Sullivan, aims to develop a ranking of alternatives and configurations of a liquid-fuelled molten-salt reactor, including costs, regulatory, public acceptance and site issues for building and licensing a pilot-scale demonstration reactor in the UK. It would...

Friday’s proposed rule looks to change the FDA’s “standards of identity” (SOI) for over 20 items, ranging from cheese to cereal flour. This simply means the SOIs list ingredients that standardized foods must contain, and which ingredients are optional. Most SOIs do not currently permit the use of salt substitutes. The proposed rule uses a “horizontal” approach to updating the SOIs. This means that the proposed rule would affect multiple SOIs and apply across various foods and categories of foods. Specifically – 80 SOIs that specify salt as a required or an optional ingredient.would be amended under the FDA’s proposal....

Seven million people could die of diseases linked to excessive salt consumption before the decade's end unless governments immediately pass tighter restrictions on salt, a report by the World Health Organization warned this month. Its authors are calling on governments to implement stricter sodium targets for food, mark salt content more clearly on packaging and boost public awareness of the health dangers posed by eating a lot of salty food."Excessive sodium intake is the top risk factor for an unhealthy diet, and it is responsible for 1.8 million deaths each year," said Francesco Branca, director of the WHO's Department of...

Eating too much salt is not only bad for our blood pressure and cardiovascular system—it could also adversely impact the immune system. A team is reporting that salt can disrupt key immune regulators called regulatory T cells by impairing their energy metabolism. The findings may provide new avenues for exploring the development of autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases. A few years ago, research revealed that too much salt in our diet can negatively affect the metabolism and energy balance in certain types of innate immune cells called monocytes and macrophages and stop them from working properly. The researchers further showed that...

Urinary sodium excretion and salt intake are not independently associated with 24-hour blood pressure variability (BPV), according to a study. Tan Lai Zhou and colleagues used data from 2,652 participants in the Maastricht Study to evaluate whether urinary sodium excretion and salt intake are associated with 24-hour BPV. Participants adhered to a seven-day low- and high-salt diet (50 and 250 mmol NaCl/24 hour, respectively) with a washout period of 14 days. The researchers found that 24-hour urinary sodium excretion was not associated with 24-hour systolic or diastolic BPV (β, per 1 g/24-hour urinary sodium excretion: 0.05 mm Hg [95 percent...

s Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, and it is often preventable through lifestyle changes such as maintaining a healthy diet and regular physical activity. One aspect of diet that has been linked to CVD risk is salt intake. Research has shown that reducing salt intake can help lower the risk of CVD. However, it is important to consume salt in moderation as part of a healthy diet, as excessive salt intake can have negative health effects. According to new research, a lower frequency of dietary salt intake is associated with a reduced risk...

Researchers found that patients who were assigned to the highest dose of the new medication saw the top blood pressure number drop by a full 20 points. Some patients with high blood pressure can't get it under control with standard medications, but a new study shows an experimental drug is up to the task of treating these tough-to-treat cases. Why do some folks struggle more with managing their high blood pressure than others? When the hypertension is caused by the hormone aldosterone, which is responsible for how much salt the body retains, it is much harder to control, researchers explained....

Increased consumption of dietary sodium may increase the risk for atopic dermatitis, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, held May 18 to 21 in Portland, Oregon. Morgan Ye, M.P.H., from the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues examined the association between sodium intake and atopic dermatitis in a U.S. population-based cohort of 13,183 children and adults identified from the 1999-2000, 2001-2002, and 2003-2004 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The researchers found that the average dietary sodium intake was 3.30 g and 6 percent of participants reported...

We don’t wanna freak you out, but West Virginian scientists may have found a life form more than 800 million years old. In a new paper published in the journal Geology, West Virginia University geologists say that some of the microorganisms found inside the Browne Formation, an 830 million-year-old rock found in the Australian desert, may still be alive — and if they are, it could help us find life on Mars, to boot. Taking a piece of the Browne Formation, which includes halite salt crystals, the WVU researchers found organic liquids and solids using non-invasive optical techniques. Within those...

How the cavemen ate: Cookbook reveals 77 recipes stretching right back to the Stone Age (and they taste surprisingly good!) Fancy something new for dinner tonight? Well if you don't fancy a Chinese or a Thai, researchers have pulled together 77 recipes which were eaten during the Stone Ages. And the surprise is how delicious the recipes, some of them 16,000 years old, sound - with your typical Neolithic families spicing up their meals and using plenty of fresh fruit and herbs along with the simmering main dishes of game. A Culinary Journey Through Time can join Jamie Oliver and...