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Salt Linked To Autoimmune Diseases
ananyo writes "The incidence of autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, has spiked in developed countries in recent decades. In three studies published today, researchers describe the molecular pathways that can lead to autoimmune disease and identify one possible culprit that has been right under our noses — and on our tables — the entire time: salt. Some forms of autoimmunity have been linked to overproduction of TH17 cells, a type of helper T cell that produces an inflammatory protein called interleukin-17. Now scientists have found sodium chloride turns on the production of these cells (abstract). They also showed that in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, a high-salt diet accelerated the disease's progression (abstract)."
Salt, sugar, ethanol, nicotine, any food that isn't raw and tasteless--in an ideal healthy world, we would all eat a diet of cardboard and water and walk around flagellating ourselves all day.
Enjoyable = sinful = unhealthy
Don't eat or you will die.... oh wait.
These finding are contradicted by the epidemiological evidence. The hazards of low salt are immediate and deadly. The hazards of high salt are hard to detect. The chances that there are other variables at work are high. Just because you have a pathway, it doesn't mean you've identified all the regulatory mechanisms.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
90 years of whole wheat is indistinguishable from death.
yes, people used to die from flu, tooth infections and because of exhaustion when they traveled from Paris to Vienna in autumn by coach, now people live to 80+ until the system shuts down from almost anything ... soon we'll hear oxygen is linked to autoimmune diseases, diabetes and lack of interest in MSM
it's called living, it is dangerous, and at the end, no matter what you do, you die
Are you saying "processed" salt doesn't have sodium chloride? Or that natural salt doesn't?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Nobody tell Bloomberg!
another thing I love that I can't eat? they're just throwing more salt in my wound!
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
He's saying that natural salt doesn't have Bleach, Iodine, and non-binding agents.
...is somewhere between 0 and 100kg per day. Now we just need to zero in on the exact number and we'll be all set.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
That iodine has done a LOT of good for public health.
Your political party doesn't care about your rights and only represents corporate interests.
I thought that came from being next to Sweden and Russia.
The problem with these guesses about salt is our kidneys are specifically designed for actively and precisely maintaining homeostasis of certain key ions (Na, Cl, K, Ca) in the bloodstream. If it weren't we would simply die within days or sooner. Moderate salt with good hydration is probably not harmful at all -- it is probably good for you as it helps the kidneys filter other bad stuff out. Low salt could easily be bad for you.
High salt plus low hydration might be bad. But where exactly is the line where moderate salt becomes high? Guessing based on what we eat is for witch doctors.
So I would like to see an actual study showing how adding/subtracting a little salt changes anything measurable at all about the long term serum average, otherwise I am inclined to believe that this guess is baloney. We are not walking petri dishes.
(There are specific diseases where controlling salts are very important, but that is a separate issue.)
You should always take news like this with 64.79891 mg of NaCl.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
It isn't salt, it's too much salt. No one needs the huge levels of sodium chloride that is now added to most processed foods. It is there because it "tastes good" while making you want to eat more and more.
I had to give up salt completely some years ago and it took months before I regained my ability to taste unsalted food. Now, food without salt actually tastes much better that the over-salted crap served to us everywhere.
Yes, the body requires some sodium chloride but the amount is very small. What most people ingest is far, far beyond that. As with just about anything, too much will harm you.
Because those folks are dying of diseases we already cured here. Stop the noble savage BS already.
Well, experts have been advising it. Everyone actually been eating that way? If they were, the entire fast-food industry would have collapsed.
Correlation != causation.
Why is it that developed nations lead in X disease and Y disease? A lot of it has to do with the fact that we screen for and treat these diseases rather than letting them go by unnoticed as they do in most of the less-developed world. Prior to modern medicine, a lot of now easily curable or treatable illnesses were fatal. Just look through a history book and you can see that a decent amount of children died not long after birth. Because of this, you've got people who are predisposed to getting sick living relatively normal, healthy lives in the west but in less developed nations these people would have died during childhood. Because of this we get this "skewed" idea that less developed nations are "healthier" which is not correct, it just is that those who aren't healthy have already died.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Salt consumption declined at the start of the 20th century with the spread of refrigeration. Then through the 20th century it rose again as consumption of processed food grew.
Been an engineer for a salt company for 20 years, the processing of salt is to take out the few impurities there are, we do not really add anything at all. There is no bleach, you do not clean 316SS that way when working with salt, salt kills bacteria as well as bleach could. You can easily get non iodine salt, the only additive is a inert agent to help it keep flowing in high moisture... (think of the rice in shakers, yeah its like that). "Natural" salt and Sea Salt, which we do make, is basically less clean, kinda nasty... but the crystal size and organization is different so it gives a different taste, quite nice on some things. But it is still nasty compared to good ole processed table salt, 99.9% pure and the last 0.1 is mostly encapsulated sand and our flow agent. Salt is CHEAP, we used to joke when crackpots (sorry valued customers) sent us complaints we were "cutting" the salt with something because it tasted less salty.... we looked it up, sand is much more expensive, not sure what we could cut it with that is cheaper! Oh and while we are at it, if anyone ever throws out salt due to a best buy date I will find them and smack them, we are forec to put those on, most of the US salt is at least 10k years old, it is not gonna bad anytime soon.
You know, when you are asking for a Citation like a smart-ass, maybe you should first make sure there isn't one to be found by searching the very site you're posting on.
The problem with salt is that it can be too low or too high. And, despite what doctors might say, it's not that hard to run low.
Bottom line, is that it's how much you have in your brain and blood stream that ultimately matters more than your consumption does. If you're eating 2x the recommended amount, but sweating 3x as much as a normal person would, you will get sick eventually.
Moderate salt intake is mandatory, if you're not consuming any you'll eventually run low and wind up dead or brain damaged. And, that's not as hard as people think, all it takes is a few days of unseasonable weather if you've been low balling your consumption to get seriously ill. As in wind up in the ICU of the local hospital with life threatening brain damage.
Yes, that's rather unlikely as most people consume so much salt that it would take weeks or more to run low, but it can and does happen.
Citation please. If that's really true, then why do so many people see their blood pressure improve by taken blood pressure medication that causes the excretion of sodium?
Multiple Sclerosis is a horrible disease that leaves you incapable of doing anything but sitting around waiting to die
You're doing it wrong. Double the amount of salt in your diet, throw in some other pleasurable and unhealthy things in your lifestyle and I guarantee you'll never linger in this world until you get bored.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Taubes on Salt - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Sin and salt and ruthless efficiency!
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
I do agree. Electrolytes are vital to a healthy body, and all it takes to put you in the "too low" category is a 24-hour GI bug accompanied by a half-dozen bouts of screaming into the porcelain microphone.
And did you ever notice that sports drinks with electrolytes (like Gatorade) taste great when you're sweating and salt-deprived, and positively horrible when you're not?
Koans and fables for the software engineer
Also, butter. They make tea from it.
They tend to eat or drink on average more than 20 grams of salt per day.
They also tend to live 4900 meters above sea level. On average.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I've been doing a lot of reading on dietary topics, and it is quite amazing how many opinions about our dietary needs are based on nothing but opinion or the opinions of other people. Even the scientific results can be mis-interpreted or looked at in so many ways that you can seemingly show whatever you want from these studies.
There's a ton of stuff out there, like the book "Good Calories Bad Calories" that covers it in depth, but watch this video by Dr Peter Attia. I think it sums it up pretty well. The limits of scientific evidence and the ethics of dietary guidelines -- 60 years of ambiguity
I've been following the Primal Blueprint lifestyle for a few months, and the effects have been pretty amazing.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
The major acid in your stomach is HCl. Any ionic* sodium you ingest is effectively immediately turned into salt. The "salt equivalent" measure is actually more useful than a straight NaCl measure for monitoring salt intake.
*If you are ingesting non-ionic sodium, you should video it for medical purposes (and youtube).
I'm guessing that wasn't on their radar screen...