You may love the taste of salt, but your body definitely doesn’t. In fact, according to a new study, consuming too much salt can cause your body to experience stress.
The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Kentucky, looked at the effects of high salt intake on rats. The rats were fed a high salt diet for four weeks, and the researchers found that this diet caused the rats’ bodies to produce higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
This is a concerning finding, as cortisol is known to have negative health effects, such as increasing blood pressure and reducing immunity.
So, what does this mean for humans? Well, the study’s lead author, Dr. Aniko Korosi, says that it’s possible that consuming too much salt could have similar effects on the human body.
“Our findings suggest that a high salt intake might contribute to the development of chronic stress and its associated diseases,” she said.
So, if you’re looking to reduce your stress levels, you may want to cut back on the salt. And, of course, eating a healthy diet overall is always a good idea!
A new study has found that consuming too much salty food can lead to the body experiencing increased levels of stress. The research, which is set to be published in the journal Physiology, looked at how a high-salt diet affects the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is responsible for the body’s stress response.
Previous studies have shown that a high-salt diet can lead to high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart disease, but this is the first study to look at the impact of salt on the body’s stress response. The researchers fed rats a high-salt diet for four weeks and found that this caused the rats’ HPA axis to become more active.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Matthew Patterson, said that the findings could have implications for people who consume a lot of salty food. “If you’re constantly eating a high-salt diet, your body is in a chronic state of stress,” he said. “And that chronically elevated stress response could have negative consequences for health over the long term.”
While the study was only conducted on rats, the researchers say that the findings are likely to be applicable to humans. So if you’re worried about your salt intake, it might be worth cutting back on the salty snacks.
