Luke Clarke

Functional Medicine Practitioner and Naturopath in Melbourne

Call US: 03 8820 0010
  • Home
  • About Me
  • What I Do
    • Functional Medicine
    • IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome) Treatment
    • Fibromyalgia Treatment
    • Gut Microbiome Testing
    • FODMAP
    • Adrenal Fatigue Treatment
    • Women’s Health
    • Men’s Health
    • Cleanse and Detox
    • Children’s Health
  • Blog
  • Women’s Health
  • Men’s Health
  • Children’s Health
  • Gut Health
    • How Do I Know if I Have Adrenal Fatigue?
    • What Are Functional Foods Examples?
    • What Are the Top Five Functional Foods?
    • What Foods Fight Inflammation?
    • The Health Benefits Of An Anti-Inflammatory Diet
    • What Is an Anti-Inflammatory Diet?
  • Contact

January 18, 2018 by Luke Leave a Comment

High-salt diet ups dementia risk in mice

Image result for salt diet

 Consuming high-salt diet may be harmful as it may increase the risk of dementia later in life, warns a recent study.

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York explained that high-salt diet reduces resting blood flow to the brain and causes dementia in mice.

The study is the first to unveil a gut-brain connection, linking high dietary salt intake to neurovascular and cognitive impairment.

The findings illuminate a potential future target for countering harmful effects to the brain caused by excess salt consumption.

The researchers explained that mice fed a high-salt diet developed dementia even when blood pressure did not rise.

Researchers Senior author Dr. Costantino Iadecola, director of the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute (BMRI) and the Anne Parrish Titzell Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine.

“This was surprising since, in humans, the deleterious effects of salt on cognition were attributed to hypertension”, they added.

The mice were given food containing four percent or eight percent salt, representing an 8 to 16 fold increase in salt compared to a normal mouse diet.

The higher level was comparable to the high end of human salt consumption.

After eight weeks, the team examined the mice using magnetic resonance imaging.

The results revealed that the mice showed marked reductions in resting cerebral blood flow in two areas of the brain involved in learning and memory: 28 percent decrease in the cortex and 25 percent in the hippocampus.

The scientists discovered that an impaired ability of cells lining blood vessels, called endothelial cells, reduced the production of nitric oxide, a gas normally produced by the endothelial cells to relax blood vessels and increase blood flow.

Rodents that only ate the high-salt diet developed dementia, performing significantly worse on an object recognition test.

The research appears in Nature Neuroscience journal.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Contact Us

Luke Clarke

Phone: (03) 8820 0010

Clinic Address:
1 Ward Street
Ashburton VIC 3147, Australia
(Parking out the back – use laneway on left)

Menu

  • Home
  • About Me
  • What I Do
    • Functional Medicine
    • IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome) Treatment
    • Fibromyalgia Treatment
    • Gut Microbiome Testing
    • FODMAP
    • Adrenal Fatigue Treatment
    • Women’s Health
    • Men’s Health
  • Children’s Health
  • Blog
  • Contact

Sitemap

Sitemap
Copyright © 2025 · Luke Clarke