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It is well known and much accepted fact that higher amount of salt intake will lead to hypertension and heart related diseases. At the same time Iodine and Sodium deficiency makes the human beings weak in some areas. The new study report says the consumption of high-salt diet may give biological advantages in improving the immunity system.
On observing the experiments on mice in labs, they have noticed the special feature of the sodium accumulation on skin, which helped the mice in defending the body against invading bacteria, which they have probably observed when others mice biting the skin for taste.
"Our study challenges this one-sided view and suggests that increasing salt accumulation at the site of infections might be an ancient strategy to ward off infections, long before antibiotics were invented," explained first study author Jonathan Jantsch, microbiologist at Universitatsklinikum Regensburg and Universitat Regensburg in Germany.
Moreover, experiments in mice showed that a high-salt diet boosted the activity of immune cells called macrophages, thereby promoting the healing of feet that were infected with a protozoan parasite.
"Due to the overwhelming clinical studies demonstrating that high dietary salt is detrimental to hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, we feel that at present our data does not justify recommendations on high dietary salt in the general population," Jantsch commented.
"Nevertheless, in situations where endogenous accumulation of salt to sites of infection is insufficient, supplementation of salt might be a therapeutic option," he emphasised.
The study also said that the persons with skin diseases and the lower immunity levels. "We also think that local application of high-salt-containing wound dressings and the development of other salt-boosting antimicrobial therapies might bear therapeutic potential," the authors concluded.
The paper appeared in the journal Cell Press. It is advised that the report is not a final one, and having too much sodium in our body leads to many diseases.
-Kannamsai
