High salt consumption can lead to dementia

A diet rich in salt reduces blood flow to the brain and causes dementia among mice, says a new study by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine. Find out how salt consumption has been correlated with mental deficiencies! . The findings bring to light a potential future target for combating the harmful effects on the brain caused by excess salt. The lead author, Dr. Costantino Iadecola, director of the Mind Research Institute (BMRI), Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine, said that they found that mice fed a salt-rich diet developed dementia even when blood pressure did not increase. This was surprising because in humans the salt's harmful effects on cognition were attributable to hypertension.

A large majority, about 90% of American adults, consume more sodium than the recommended daily dose of 2. 300 mg a day. Mice received 4% or 8% salt-containing foods, representing a 8 to 16-fold increase in salt versus a normal mouse diet. The upper level was comparable to high human salt consumption. After eight weeks, scientists examined mice using magnetic resonance imaging.

Mice showed significant reductions in resting brain blood flow in two brain areas involved in learning and memory: a decrease of 28% in the cortex and 25% in the hippocampus. Scientists have discovered that a dysfunction of blood vessel cells, called endothelial cells, has reduced the production of nitric oxide, a gas normally produced by endothelial cells to relax the blood vessels and increase blood flow. To see if the biological effects of a high salt diet could be reversed, Dr. Jadecola and his colleagues returned some mice to a regular / regular diet for four weeks and found that cerebral blood flow and endothelial function returned to normal. Rodents who only consumed high-salt diet developed dementia, showing significant deterioration in the results of object recognition, labyrinth and nest building - a typical daily life activity for normal mice.

Later, scientists conducted several experiments to understand the biological mechanisms that combine high salt intake with dementia. They found that mice developed an adaptive immune response in their intestines with increased activity of a subset of white blood cells that play an important role in the activity of other immune cells. The growth of these white blood cells, TH helper lymphocytes called TH17, has stimulated the production of a protein called interleukin 17 (IL-17) that regulates immune and inflammatory responses, resulting in a reduction in the production of nitric oxide in endothelial cells. In a final experiment, scientists treated mice with a known drug to prevent the suppression of nitric oxide activity, called the ROCK inhibitor Y27632. The drug reduced the level of IL-17 and the mice showed improved behavioral and cognitive functions,.

Iadecola. IL-17-ROCK is an exciting target for future research into the causes of cognitive impairment,. Giuseppe Faraco, assistant professor of neuroscience research at BMRI and the first author of the study. It appears to counteract the cerebrovascular and cognitive effects of a salt-rich diet and can also help people with illnesses and conditions associated with high levels of IL-17 such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and other diseases . .