Hi Zizzle,
While that's all interesting, as the article says, it doesn't prove anything. At best, it's only one part of a multifaceted dilemma. I find these speculative comments to be somewhat amusing:
This research suggests that one factor may be that we now eat more processed foods with high levels of salt.
The research actually can't say anything about diet trends, all it shows is an effect of salt on a certain T helper cell. The remark about diet trends is strictly speculative, and has nothing to do with the research. In fact, current diet trends lean toward decreasing amounts of salt in the diet, and that has been the trend for quite a few years, now.
They're looking at an ant (a grain of salt), while ignoring the elephant in the room (soaring amounts of gluten, preservatives, and other chemicals in processed foods).
Hafler says, “I have already begun to suggest to my patients with multiple sclerosis that it may not be bad to restrict their dietary salt intake.”
Other research shows a strong association of gluten sensitivity with MS. But you can jolly well bet that the good doctor Hafler never says a word to his patients about the association of gluten-sensitivity with MS, let alone offer any advice on how they could actually treat their disease with a GF diet. Instead he tells them to eat less salt.
Tex
