The modern diet of processed foods, takeaways and microwave meals
could be to blame for a sharp increase in autoimmune diseases such as
multiple sclerosis, including alopecia, asthma and eczema.
A team of scientists from Yale University in the U.S and the
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, say junk food diets could
be partly to blame.
‘This study is the first to indicate that excess refined and
processed salt may be one of the environmental factors driving the
increased incidence of autoimmune diseases,’ they said.
Junk foods at fast food restaurants as well as processed foods at
grocery retailers represent the largest sources of sodium intake from
refined salts.
Image Credits
The Canadian Medical Association Journal
sent out an international team of researchers
to compare the salt content of 2,124 items from fast food
establishments such as Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Kentucky Fried
Chicken, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Subway. They found that the average
salt content varied between companies and between the same products sold
in different countries.
U.S. fast foods are often more than twice as salt-laden as those of
other countries. While government-led public health campaigns and
legislation efforts have reduced refined salt levels in many countries,
the U.S. government has been reluctant to press the issue. That’s left
fast-food companies free to go salt crazy, says Norm Campbell, M.D., one
of the study authors and a blood-pressure specialist at the University
of Calgary.
Many low-fat foods rely on salt–and lots of it–for their flavor. One
packet of KFC’s Marzetti Light Italian Dressing might only have 15
calories and 0.5 grams fat, but it also has 510 mg sodium–about 1.5
times as much as one Original Recipe chicken drumstick. (Feel like
you’re having too much of a good thing? You probably are.
Bread is the No. 1 source of refined salt consumption in the American
diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just
one 6-inch Roasted Garlic loaf from Subway–just the bread, no meat, no
cheeses, no nothing–has 1,260 mg sodium, about as much as 14 strips of
bacon.
How Refined Salt Causes Autoimmune Disease
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.
Study co-author Ralf Linker, from the University of
Erlangen-Nuremberg, said: ‘These findings are an important contribution
to the understanding of multiple sclerosis and may offer new targets for
a better treatment of the disease, for which at present there is no
cure.’
It develops when the immune system mistakes the myelin that surrounds
the nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord for a foreign body. It strips the myelin off the nerves fibres, which disrupts messages
passed between the brain and body causing problems with speech, vision
and balance.
Another of the study’s authors, Professor David Hafler, from Yale
University, said that nature had clearly not intended for the immune
system to attack its host body, so he expected that an external factor
was playing a part.
He said: ‘These are not diseases of bad genes alone or diseases
caused by the environment, but diseases of a bad interaction between
genes and the environment.
‘Today, Western diets all have high salt content and that has led to
increase in hypertension and perhaps autoimmune disease as well.’
The team next plan to study the role that Th17 cells play in autoimmune conditions that affect the skin.
‘It would be interesting to find out if patients with psoriasis can
alleviate their symptoms by reducing their salt intake,’ they said.
‘However, the development of autoimmune diseases is a very complex
process which depends on many genetic and environmental factors.’
Stick to Good Salts
Refined, processed and bleached salts are the problem. Salt is
critical to our health and is the most readily available nonmetallic
mineral in the world. Our bodies are not designed to processed refined
sodium chloride since it has no nutritional value. However, when a salt
is filled with dozens of minerals such as in rose-coloured crystals of
Himalayan rock salt or the grey texture of Celtic salt, our bodies
benefit tremendously for their incorporation into our diet.
“These mineral salts are identical to the elements of which our
bodies have been built and were originally found in the primal ocean
from where life originated,” argues Dr Barbara Hendel, researcher and
co-author of Water & Salt, The Essence of Life. “We have salty tears
and salty perspiration. The chemical and mineral composition of our
blood and body fluids are similar to sea water. From the beginning of
life, as unborn babies, we are encased in a sack of salty fluid.”
“In water, salt dissolves into mineral ions,” explains Dr Hendel.
“These conduct electrical nerve impulses that drive muscle movement and
thought processes. Just the simple act of drinking a glass of water
requires millions of instructions that come from mineral ions. They’re
also needed to balance PH levels in the body.”
Mineral salts, she says, are healthy because they give your body the
variety of mineral ions needed to balance its functions, remain healthy
and heal. These healing properties have long been recognised in central
Europe. At Wieliczka in Poland, a hospital has been carved in a salt
mountain. Asthmatics and patients with lung disease and allergies find
that breathing air in the saline underground chambers helps improve
symptoms in 90 per cent of cases.
Dr Hendel believes too few minerals, rather than too much salt, may
be to blame for health problems. It’s a view that is echoed by other
academics such as David McCarron, of Oregon Health Sciences University
in the US.
He says salt has always been part of the human diet, but what has
changed is the mineral content of our food. Instead of eating food high
in minerals, such as nuts, fruit and vegetables, people are filling
themselves up with “mineral empty” processed food and fizzy drinks.
Study Source: This is the result of a study
conducted by Dr. Markus Kleinewietfeld, Prof. David Hafler (both Yale
University, New Haven and the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, MIT, and Harvard University, USA), PD Dr. Ralf
Linker (Dept. of Neurology, University Hospital Erlangen), Professor
Jens Titze (Vanderbilt University and Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat
Erlangen-Nurnberg, FAU, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) and Professor
Dominik N. Muller (Experimental and Clinical Research Center, ECRC, a
joint cooperation between the Max-Delbruck Center for Molecular
Medicine, MDC, Berlin, and the Charite — Universitatsmedizin Berlin and
FAU) (
Nature, doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11868)*. In autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks healthy tissue instead of fighting pathogens.
April McCarthy is
a community journalist playing an active role reporting and analyzing
world events to advance our health and eco-friendly initiatives.
