07 Feb , 17:55
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Excess salt in the diet can deliver a serious blow to cognitive functions — impairing memory, hindering learning, and triggering anxiety disorders. These alarming findings were obtained by researchers from Xi'an Jiaotong University. Their work was published in the European Journal of Pharmacology.
Scientists conducted a large-scale experiment: laboratory mice were kept on a high-salt diet for six months. The results of behavioral tests proved discouraging — the animals showed notably reduced cognitive abilities, impaired learning capacity, and significantly elevated anxiety levels. Additionally, researchers documented neuronal damage and inflammatory processes in the hippocampus — the very brain region responsible for memory and emotional regulation.
The key to understanding lay in the gut-brain axis.
It was discovered that salty food radically alters the composition of gut microbiota. These changes trigger a cascade of reactions: gene activity in the brain is transformed, neuroinflammation increases, and nerve cell death begins.
Researchers managed to identify specific "culprits" — bacterial groups associated with inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes. Thus, the growth of Dubosiella and Anaeroplasma populations in the gut led to increased expression of a whole range of inflammatory markers: Btbd16, Il1b, Prlr, Cd24a, Ak.
According to the authors, the obtained results convincingly confirm that gut microbiota plays a crucial role in the development of cognitive impairments. Chronic excessive salt consumption may pose a real threat to brain health. In the future, these findings could become the foundation for developing preventive strategies — maintaining mental clarity may be achievable through simple dietary habit modifications.
