NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A multi-national study based in two countries has found that salt plays an important role in the human immune system.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University and Erlangen and Regensburg Universities in Germany found that sodium accumulates on skin and in human tissue and that of mice resulting in infection control.
The study was published online in the March edition of Cell Metabolism.
Scientists conclude that salt may be nature’s way of providing a barrier to microbial invasion as it boosts immune systems.
What tipped researchers to the importance of salt was the presence of it in high concentrations in mice with skin infections, leading to the conclusion that salt may be the body’s way of fighting infection.
What they found is salt increased activation of infection-fighting macrophages – or white blood cells.
It is noted that mice with footpad infections who were fed a high-salt diet stored more salt at the infection site, which cleared the infections up more quickly.
They also note that with the use of antibiotics and other infection treatments, humans may not need large stores of salt to protect them, which makes salt in the tissues more problematic as people age as it then causes higher blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(15)00055-8