Are You on a High-Salt Diet? Scientists You May Develop Cardiometabolic Diseases

Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia State University recently said that the chronic high-salt diet most Americans are into could turn the system against them, leading to hyperactivity of neurons, continuing production of the hormone vasopressin, blood vessel constriction, and increasing the risk of common cardiometabolic disorders such as heart disease and high blood pressure.

As indicated in a EurekAlert! report, deep in the brain, a group of large neurons produces a hormone, prompting the bodies to hold onto more fluid, and increasing blood pressure.

Scientists said that neurons play a vital role in allowing the body to keep healthy homeostasis by efficiently using the skillset to remove the excess salt consumed in an unhealthy meal.

A new multi-principal investigator grant amounting to $2.7 million, from the National Institutes of Health allows the researchers to investigate further this seemingly novel way cardiometabolic diseases occur and determine new treatment targets for them.

High Salt

According to neurovascular psychologist Dr. Jessica Filosa from the MGC Department of Physiology, the large neurons in the supraoptic nucleus in the hypothalamus close to the base of the brain secret oxytocin, a hormone key to the reproductive system, and vasopressin called an antidiuretic hormone as it helps the body hold into fluids, which can help dilute excessive salt in the body so it can be extracted in the urine.

She explained that they are looking at how the brain senses high salt and responds to that high salt to correct the disturbance effectively "and regain homeostasis." Filosa and Dr. Javier Stern, director of the GSU Center for Neuroinflammation and Cardiometabolic Diseases, are on the new grant.

The two find that salt loading increases the vasopressin-producing neurons' firing, increases the blood vessels' constriction, and decreases local blood flow.

Neurovascular Coupling

More typically, when neurons turn active, the blood that flows to them increases, known as neurovascular coupling. Such a process helps guarantee that working neurons have adequate oxygen and nutrients needed to retain increased activity.

In the supraoptic nucleus, Stern, Filosa, and their colleagues found that the high activity of vasopressin neurons produces a seemingly self-induced and sustained constriction of the vast network of blood vessels that directly feed them.

A related Bioengineer.org report specified that the investigators sowed too, that the resulting local hypoxia, an oxygen supply considered inadequate to sustain homeostasis, was one of the mechanisms by which the vasopressin's activity was further excited. It is a form of the so-called "inverse neurovascular coupling."

Homeostatic Process

Explaining their work, Filosa said the body wants to stay in balance. Any time one does something to his body or something happens to him "that deviates from that balance," the homeostatic process turns on and at least tries to restore balance. In this circumstance, excess salt is stimulation for homeostatic processes.

However, the process turns out to be a problem that instead adds to high blood pressure and likely other problems when high intake of salt becomes chronic like it is for most people, specifically 90 percent of Americans aged two and above consume much sodium, a similar Global Health News Wire report specified.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of over 3,400 milligrams each day, compared to the recommended 2,300 milligrams of salt, is consumed by the said population.

Related information about the salt diet is shown on British Heart Foundation's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Diet in Science Times.