Some number of millenia ago our evolutionary forebears crawled out of the sea, carrying its salt flowing through their veins to ours. In the right amount, salt is not only good for us but essential to life.
That is not the same, however, as dumping salt on our food before tasting it or eating processed dinners, from the supermarket or from the nearest fast food franchise.
Most of us have long known that salt increases hypertension among salt-sensitive individuals.
Two sets of studies have come out, one widely publicized, the other well below the radar, that add concerns about excess salt consumption.
Researchers publishing in a recent issue of Nature have linked salt consumption to auto-immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Unless you have a $200 annual subscription to Nature, you may wish to google “salt autoimmune” to read descriptions of the studies. Or, you may wish to simply click on these links to Medical News Today or The Huffington Post.
So, what are the dots to be connected? That’s where the second study comes in, the one with little publicity.
A presentation at the 2013 American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting in March found that individuals with psoriasis were more likely to have metabolic syndrome. They found that 30 percent of the psoriasis children had metabolic syndrome symptoms compared to the non-psoriasis group. There were not significant differences in Body-Mass Index (BMI), c-reactive protein, or endothelial cells
A 2012 study in South India found a higher incidence of metabolic syndrome among those with psoriasis. In this case:
Patients were diagnosed with MetS for having three or more South Asian Modified National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria: abdominal obesity (waist circumference ≥90 cm for men, ≥80 cm for women); blood pressure, >130/85 mm Hg; fasting blood glucose, ≥100 mg/dL; hypertriglyceridemia, >150 mg/dL; or low HDL (<40 mg/dL for men, <50 mg/dL for women).
Comments are closed.