Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
The association between excessive salt intake and the risk of high blood pressure has been well established, but the exact mechanics for that link are only now coming to light, and it (somewhat unsettlingly) involves the “reprogramming” of a person’s brain.
Researchers from McGill University in Canada, writing in a recent edition of the journal Neuron, explained that by analyzing the brains of rats, they found that ingesting large amounts of dietary salt can interfere with a process that helps maintain healthy arterial blood pressure.
“We found that a period of high dietary salt intake in rats causes a biochemical change in the neurons that release vasopressin (VP) into the systemic circulation,” said Professor Charles Bourque of McGill’s Faculty of Medicine.
“This change, which involves a neurotropic molecule called BDNF (brain-derived neurotropic factor), prevents the inhibition of these particular neurons by other cells,” he added.
Elevated levels of salt intake prevents the body’s arterial pressure detection circuit from inhibiting VP neurons, disabling a natural fail-safe which can allow blood pressure to increase when a high amount of salt is ingested over a long period of time, the researchers said.
The new study provides a better understanding of the association between salt intake and blood pressure, although Bourque and his colleagues believe that more work is required in order to find new targets that could lead to new treatment options for hypertension.
For one thing, the fact that the link was discovered in rats does not necessarily indicate that this reprogramming effect will be found in humans – and if it is, how can it be reversed?
In the meantime, however, Bourque said that the best advice is to continue limiting salt intake.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all people at least two years of age should consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium each day, and that those over the age of 51, as well as those diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease, should further limit their salt intake to just 1,500 mg per day.
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