Ever wondered how your body turns the food you eat into energy? This process is called the metabolic pathway.
But here’s something surprising: researchers found that eating a lot of salt can slow down parts of this pathway.
At the same time, their studies show that the kidneys work harder and use more energy when we eat a lot of salt. This surprising finding is similar to what happens in cancer tumors.
Salt and Your Health
Eating too much salt is known to raise blood pressure and can lead to health problems. Some people are especially affected by salt. This is known as being salt-sensitive.
The way our kidneys work plays a big role in how our blood pressure reacts to salt. In this study, researchers wanted to see how a high-salt diet affects the way kidney cells use energy and break down food.
How the Study Worked
The researchers looked at rats that have normal reactions to salt. They checked the rats’ kidney cells to see how they reacted to a diet high in salt.
To do this, they looked at more than 20,000 genes and 5,000 metabolites. Metabolites are substances like carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids that the body uses to make energy.
The results surprised the researchers. They found that a high-salt diet changed many things about the rats’ metabolites. This was to help the kidneys meet their increased energy needs.
Dr. Allen Cowley, who was the senior researcher on the study, said, “We didn’t expect to find a high salt diet would trigger such a response in normal kidneys.”
What’s Next?
The researchers want to understand why this happens. They want to find out why the kidneys’ energy use changes when they’re exposed to a high-salt diet.
They’ll be doing more studies to see if these changes are bigger in people who are salt-sensitive.
They also want to see if these changes might be a reason why chronic kidney disease is common in salt-sensitive people. These are just a few theories they want to explore.
It’s clear that salt has a big impact on our health. The findings from this study give us a better understanding of how and why this happens. As we learn more, we can hopefully find better ways to stay healthy.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies that vitamin D can help reduce inflammation, and vitamin K may lower your heart disease risk by a third.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about foods that could sharp your brain, and results showing cooking food in this way may raise your risk of blindness.
The study was published in Function.
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