Too much of salt in your food can affect the immune system: Study finds

Too much of anything in our diet can be bad for our health. It remains the same for something as simple as salt. We just can’t imagine any food without salt. However, a recent study conducted by experts from the Institute of Experimental Immunology at the University Hospital Bonn in Germany suggests that cutting down your salt intake can visibly improve your immune system.

We all must know by now that a sodium-rich diet can affect blood pressure. The recent study concludes that excessive salt also increases the chances of cardiac diseases, stroke, stomach cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diseases, kidney stones, and osteoporosis. It can also possibly increase the number of inflammatory cells.

Sodium chloride sensor present in kidneys helps to get rid of excess salt from our bodies. However, this function might also cause glucocorticoids that can prevent the smooth functioning of granulocytes, a common type of immune cell in the blood.

The study included tests on both, animals and humans for better results.Volunteers of the experiment, mice and the humans both were put into high-sodium diets to see the body functioning.It was marked later through blood sample testing that both the participant’s immune cells performed weak with bacteria after the subjects had started to consume excessive salt in their food.

“We have now been able to prove for the first time that excessive salt intake also significantly weakens an important arm of the immune system,” said Prof. Dr. Christian Kurts, one of the researchers from the University of Bonn.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one must not take more than five grams or one teaspoon of salt in a single day. Consuming an additional six grams of salt can be equal to the amount of sodium found in two fast-food meals. It can alone weaken the immune system.

The papers of the study were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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