Dietary salt may trigger autoimmune diseases(?) ...

Don't doubt the research but if I stopped eating every food or seasoning that might have a causal relationship or be trigger for some disease or other....I'd end up eating broccoli grown organically with no flavoring added.

That means eating blah with the protein provided by the worms that inhabit broccoli grown "naturally". Would take a lot of the fun - and taste - out of living, wouldn't it?

I can see no reason at all why salt would be able to trigger auto-immune disease.

Salt would affect osmosis in the cells and can affect nerve cells but to trigger an immune response? I can see no mechanism for this.

Yes, I am one of those annoying Healthcare Scientists that wants to see a good reason for health claims. You should try reading the Daily Mail over here in the UK. It is full of this sort of crap on a daily basis: Today Coffee cures Cancer - tomorrow, Coffee causes Cancer!

I can see how it does - the average box of salt over here is not pure - it's loaded with aluminum and sometimes other metals as a byproduct of manufacturing. I only use sea salt. It's more spendy but I'm not ingesting heavy metals. I wouldn't go out into the wild and eat halite crystals, yet that's all salt is.

Jajistan - If your scientific mind wants to know every factor in the research...well, that's what pubmed is for. It publishes the actual studies before they are edited (written into articles) for magazines (I'll probably check more into this one myself as I find this pretty interesting).

I don't use tons of salt anyway, so I doubt I'll fall into dementia tomorrow (um........deeper into). I use salt mostly to help me retain water when I'm going out into desert regions to rock hunt. Maybe I shouldn't do that any more. I might not be able to remember what I'm looking for when I get there

Crap. I'm looking for this in pubmed and can't find it. I HAVE to find it. I wanna know what's happening when I pour tons of salt on my watermelon or tomatoes.

Well - I give up. As far as the info in your link Alexa - it's very interesting info. I just wonder about the salt used in the experimentation. I'm wondering if it's actually the sodium or something else in the salt. I guess for now I just take it at face value because I can't find the study.

I LOVE salt on watermelon. I also eat salt on grapefruit and green apples, tomatoes and cucumbers. Not so much on anything else. So Alexa - once again, the Internet told you the truth.

I love salt on cantaloupe. Well, technically, they are muskmelons, true cantaloupes are European. And love it on tomatoes, too.

Like Sal, I use sea salt. Did not know of the heavy metals in table salt, though.

My wife and I use very little in cooking, with the above exceptions.She has a heart thing, and I just aint into it. Oh yeah, I had a minor heart thing too

I am with you,April. Restaurants freaking overkill with the salt. Most TV chefs salt everything as well.

I use saline spray daily, I wonder if that counts as well?

Yes HeySal, I'm having the same problem and cannot even open the article on the Nature website. Nature is not the greatest science journal in the world and has a similar reputation to the Lancet amongst medics.

As far as salt use, in India they use rock salt of fruit as it enhances the sweetness of most fruits although they tend to use more than my tastes can manage. In my wife's country of Mauritius they marinade pineapple and mango to name but two in salt and chillie which is delicious.

My biggest issue with salt is its over consumption leading to atherosclerosis, high blood pressure and increased risk of stroke. LoSalt claims to help reduce ones sodium intake, however it contains potassium chloride, which in too high amounts can cause muscles to cease up by misplacing sodium and calcium from the nerves. One such very important muscle that can be affected is the heart!

What I found more interesting about the article and where I feel that the headline editor rather failed the article is that it is really looking at the genetic predisposition of individuals and their environmental contraindications such as smoking, infection and low Vit-D levels. These studies initial findings could help people with familial autoimmune disease to maybe have genetic screening done to see if they also are at risk and will be able to take measures accordingly.

Where the salt comes in is the link to the enzyme encoded on the region SGK1 which has been implicated in many conditions previously including heart disease and infertility and relates to regulation of Sodium and potassium channels.

My issue with the article is that at the time of writing or editing, somebody has taken sodium and ran with that knowing that people already have concerns with salt. There really is much more to this than just salt.

All the same, an interesting article even though it should to some extent be taken with a pinch or two.

Apologies for following a post with a post but just in reply to earlier comments; my brother in law is a chef and he really canes the salt in his cooking. Why do these guys think that they have to over season their food. Personally I think that it ruins the shuttle flavours that a developed pallet should be able to pick up.

I once read something about some diseases to be salt related and others sugar related. Asthma was supposed to be salt related while diabetes was sugar related, thus people couldn't have both diseases at the same time. I don't remember much else about it - or even remotely remember the source. It was way before Internet. Anyhow - I never did any follow up study on it. Not sure if it even started to be factual. Just was interesting to me at the time.

Funny, I was just having the salt on watermelon conversation the other day.
Sparked by my putting salt on my slice of watermelon. Someone else at the diner
said they use salt on pizza (pretty good actually). Like those other threads, maybe our brains are getting connected by the electrochemical reactions from salt consumption?

Interesting study.

It would be interesting to know if there is a difference between table salt and
sea salt for this type of research. It seems like either type of salt might have
heavy metals components these days, depending upon the source. Or other components.

The research - as per the article - seems to lend itself to the same criticisms
as the mice and artificial sweetener causes cancer research. What is high
salt level for mice as compared to humans? (Personally, I need to keep up on salt
intake or I can feel dehydration symptoms. I take a salt pill or gatorade once in a while.)

Also, I don't see how the research transfers outside the lab because we are exposed
to so many other factors.

Dan

& Yes these both also fit.

Funnier things have happened

The same study - I think - has digressed:
Yahoo! Shine - Women's Lifestyle | Healthy Living and Fashion Blogs

OY