The consequences of excess salt in the body

Salt is essential as many nutrients of the body, but it is good to accustom the body not to consume it excessively.

Excessive consumption of table salt typical of certain Western eating habits can lead to dangerous effects on the intestinal flora of mammals and even generate brain and cardiovascular diseases, according to a study by an international team of scientists and published in the magazine. Nature

To estimate the effects of this substance on human health, 39 researchers from Germany, Belgium and the USA. They carried out a series of experiments with laboratory rats, whose organism has great similarities.

The specialists supplied these rodents with food with high doses of sodium chloride or NaCl, the scientific name of common salt. After analyzing samples of their droppings, they observed that they had less 'Lactobacillus murinus' bacteria, which ferment the carbohydrates and transform them into lactic acid.

That deficit can cause serious damage to organisms, from hypertension to autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a pathology in which antibodies attack the brain and spinal cord.

In a pilot study with humans, people who consumed high doses of salt presented a reduction in lactobacilli and an increase in Th17 lymphocytes, whose excessive presence favors hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.