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I appreciate that this research differentiates between refined, bleached salt that goes into junk food and fast food and unprocessed "real" salt that includes all the original minerals. This makes me think twice about having a chip eating habit. Otherwise, I basically don't eat any processed food! But I do sprinkle a good amount of Redmond's salt or Himalayan salt on my homemade foods.
The team from Yale University studied the role of T helper cells in the body. These activate and ‘help’ other cells to fight dangerous pathogens such as bacteria or viruses and battle infections.
Previous research suggests that a subset of these cells – known as Th17 cells – also play an important role in the development of autoimmune diseases.
In the latest study, scientists discovered that exposing these cells in a lab to a table salt solution made them act more ‘aggressively.’
They found that mice fed a diet high in refined salts saw a dramatic increase in the number of Th17 cells in their nervous systems that promoted inflammation.
They were also more likely to develop a severe form of a disease associated with multiple sclerosis in humans.
The scientists then conducted a closer examination of these effects at a molecular level.
Laboratory tests revealed that salt exposure increased the levels of cytokines released by Th17 cells 10 times more than usual. Cytokines are proteins used to pass messages between cells.
Leah wrote:But what happens if the same experiment is done with unrefined salt?
Or a zillion other things. Many/most things in excess can be shown to have adverse effects.
They found that mice fed a diet high in refined salts . . .
Or, if they fed mice a diet with insufficient salt, that would show adverse effects also (certainly in the long term).
I tend to take reports such as that with a grain of salt.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
