Salt May Boost Immunity, Ward Off Infection

Can salt intake protect the skin? New findings published in the journal Cell Metabolism suggest that table salt could help prevent the spread of an infection.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University and in Germany have discovered that sodium actually accumulates in the skin in humans and mice to help ward off infection.

Table salt may be able to prevent an infection from spreading, according to a recent study and even boost certain immunities, as well.

"This is a totally different view on the role of salt in health and disease," Jens Titze, senior author of the study and associate professor of Medicine and of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, said in a news release. 

For the study, researchers observed that salt levels in mice were surprisingly high. They suggested that the skin might utilize salt accumulation to ward off certain infections, even.

Researchers discovered that the salt increased the activation of infection-fighting marcrophagas, otherwise known as a type of white blood cells.

Indeed, the researchers found that salt increased the activation of infection-fighting macrophages, a type of white blood cell.

Utilizing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique they developed, they also found that salt accumulated at the site of bacterial skin infections in six patients.

The salt accumulation in the infected legs disappeared when the patients were treated with antibiotics.
They also tested the effect of an extremely high-salt diet on the mice with persistent footpad infections. Salt stores at the site of the infection increased after consumption of the high-salt diet and the infections cleared up.

However, researchers stressed that this did not mean that a high salt diet is beneficial for health, particularly when it comes to eating foods in the 21st century. (Fries, anyone?)

"I think that the most important finding here is that tissues can accumulate massive amounts of sodium locally to boost immune responses where ever needed," Titze said. "This mostly happens totally independent of the diet. This novel biology of salt homeostasis goes beyond the idea that dietary salt is the major component that influences the salt levels in our body."

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