Posted on 02/13/2023 1:40:03 PM PST by ConservativeMind
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 salt triggers malfunctions in the mitochondria, the power plants of our cells.
Regulatory T cells, also known as Tregs, are an essential part of the adaptive immune system. They are responsible for maintaining the balance between normal function and unwanted excessive inflammation.
Scientists believe that the deregulation of Tregs is linked to the development of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis. Recent research has identified problems in mitochondrial function of Tregs from patients with autoimmunity.
Previous research has also shown that excess salt could impact Treg function by inducing an autoimmune-like phenotype. In other words, too much salt makes the Treg cells look like those involved in autoimmune conditions.
The new study has now discovered that sodium disrupts Treg function by altering cellular metabolism through interference with mitochondrial energy generation. This mitochondrial problem seems to be the initial step in how salt modifies Treg function, leading to changes in gene expression that showed similarities to those of dysfunctional Tregs in autoimmune conditions.
Even a short-term disruption of mitochondrial function had long-lasting consequences for the fitness and immune-regulating capacity of Tregs in various experimental models.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
You are thinking of potassium nitrate, it’s a poor salt substitute and tastes awful I’m sure...
Great for removing stumps though...
Thank you for posting this!
I am sick of these constant studies that are poorly constructed, epidemiological, and the reports about them that do not examine whether they are paid for by invested interests.
Too much money is being poured into our universities and institutions by big pharma and the manufactured food lobbies to produce results that help them move products and make profits.
Be very careful, friends, when reading all these studies. Many of them are absolutely bogus, misleading, and could cause serious illness or death in those who take them as factual, and do not do serious research on “the other side of the story”, as us elders have learned from and old famous radio host.
Be very careful, friends, when reading all these studies. Many of them are absolutely bogus, misleading, and could cause serious illness or death in those who take them as factual, and do not do serious research on “the other side of the story”, as us elders have learned from and old famous radio host.
what you said !! always look for an agenda or axe or grind...
Ii read recently that some people have stopped using salt & use msg as an alternative because it has far less sodium. I don’t know more than that.
Cant’ hurt me! I use Sea Salt! :-)
The food you eat and/or make has to be bland as hell. Not me!
it is still full of salt, it’s fine...really
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