Scientists Officially Link Processed Foods To Autoimmune Disease
Autor: Antonio Donato Nobre | Publicado: 2014-12-27T16:10:00-08:00



  


 
 
   
    
  
    
   
       
      
     
   


The modern diet of processed foods, takeaways and microwave meals 
could be to blame for a sharp increase in autoimmune diseases such as 
multiple sclerosis, including alopecia, asthma and eczema.




A team of scientists from Yale University in the U.S and the 
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, say junk food diets could 
be partly to blame.


‘This study is the first to indicate that excess refined and 
processed salt may be one of the environmental factors driving the 
increased incidence of autoimmune diseases,’ they said.


Junk foods at fast food restaurants as well as processed foods at 
grocery retailers represent the largest sources of sodium intake from 
refined salts.








Image Credits


The Canadian Medical Association Journal sent out an international team of researchers
 to compare the salt content of 2,124 items from fast food 
establishments such as Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Kentucky Fried 
Chicken, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Subway. They found that the average 
salt content varied between companies and between the same products sold
 in different countries.


U.S. fast foods are often more than twice as salt-laden as those of 
other countries. While government-led public health campaigns and 
legislation efforts have reduced refined salt levels in many countries, 
the U.S. government has been reluctant to press the issue. That’s left 
fast-food companies free to go salt crazy, says Norm Campbell, M.D., one
 of the study authors and a blood-pressure specialist at the University 
of Calgary.


Many low-fat foods rely on salt–and lots of it–for their flavor. One 
packet of KFC’s Marzetti Light Italian Dressing might only have 15 
calories and 0.5 grams fat, but it also has 510 mg sodium–about 1.5 
times as much as one Original Recipe chicken drumstick. (Feel like 
you’re having too much of a good thing? You probably are.


Bread is the No. 1 source of refined salt consumption in the American
 diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just
 one 6-inch Roasted Garlic loaf from Subway–just the bread, no meat, no 
cheeses, no nothing–has 1,260 mg sodium, about as much as 14 strips of 
bacon.


How Refined Salt Causes Autoimmune Disease


The team from Yale University studied the role of T helper cells in 
the body. These activate and ‘help’ other cells to fight dangerous 
pathogens such as bacteria or viruses and battle infections.

Previous 
research suggests that a subset of these cells – known as Th17 cells – 
also play an important role in the development of autoimmune diseases. In the latest study, scientists discovered that exposing these cells 
in a lab to a table salt solution made them act more ‘aggressively.’

They found that mice fed a diet high in refined salts saw a dramatic 
increase in the number of Th17 cells in their nervous systems that 
promoted inflammation.


They were also more likely to develop a severe form of a disease associated with multiple sclerosis in humans.


The scientists then conducted a closer examination of these effects at a molecular level.

Laboratory tests revealed that salt exposure increased the levels of 
cytokines released by Th17 cells 10 times more than usual. Cytokines are
 proteins used to pass messages between cells.


Study co-author Ralf Linker, from the University of 
Erlangen-Nuremberg, said: ‘These findings are an important contribution 
to the understanding of multiple sclerosis and may offer new targets for
 a better treatment of the disease, for which at present there is no 
cure.’


It develops when the immune system mistakes the myelin that surrounds
 the nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord for a foreign body. It strips the myelin off the nerves fibres, which disrupts messages 
passed between the brain and body causing problems with speech, vision 
and balance.


Another of the study’s authors, Professor David Hafler, from Yale 
University, said that nature had clearly not intended for the immune 
system to attack its host body, so he expected that an external factor 
was playing a part.





He said: ‘These are not diseases of bad genes alone or diseases 
caused by the environment, but diseases of a bad interaction between 
genes and the environment.




&nbsp;‘Humans were genetically selected for conditions in sub-Saharan 
Africa, where there was no salt. It’s one of the reasons that having a 
particular gene may make African Americans much more sensitive to salt.

&nbsp;
‘Today, Western diets all have high salt content and that has led to 
increase in hypertension and perhaps autoimmune disease as well.’


The team next plan to study the role that Th17 cells play in autoimmune conditions that affect the skin.


‘It would be interesting to find out if patients with psoriasis can 
alleviate their symptoms by reducing their salt intake,’ they said.


‘However, the development of autoimmune diseases is a very complex 
process which depends on many genetic and environmental factors.’


Stick to Good Salts


Refined, processed and bleached salts are the problem. Salt is 
critical to our health and is the most readily available nonmetallic 
mineral in the world. Our bodies are not designed to processed refined 
sodium chloride since it has no nutritional value. However, when a salt 
is filled with dozens of minerals such as in rose-coloured crystals of 
Himalayan rock salt or the grey texture of Celtic salt, our bodies 
benefit tremendously for their incorporation into our diet.


“These mineral salts are identical to the elements of which our 
bodies have been built and were originally found in the primal ocean 
from where life originated,” argues Dr Barbara Hendel, researcher and 
co-author of Water &amp; Salt, The Essence of Life. “We have salty tears
 and salty perspiration. The chemical and mineral composition of our 
blood and body fluids are similar to sea water. From the beginning of 
life, as unborn babies, we are encased in a sack of salty fluid.”


“In water, salt dissolves into mineral ions,” explains Dr Hendel. 
“These conduct electrical nerve impulses that drive muscle movement and 
thought processes. Just the simple act of drinking a glass of water 
requires millions of instructions that come from mineral ions. They’re 
also needed to balance PH levels in the body.”


Mineral salts, she says, are healthy because they give your body the 
variety of mineral ions needed to balance its functions, remain healthy 
and heal. These healing properties have long been recognised in central 
Europe. At Wieliczka in Poland, a hospital has been carved in a salt 
mountain. Asthmatics and patients with lung disease and allergies find 
that breathing air in the saline underground chambers helps improve 
symptoms in 90 per cent of cases.


Dr Hendel believes too few minerals, rather than too much salt, may 
be to blame for health problems. It’s a view that is echoed by other 
academics such as David McCarron, of Oregon Health Sciences University 
in the US.


He says salt has always been part of the human diet, but what has 
changed is the mineral content of our food. Instead of eating food high 
in minerals, such as nuts, fruit and vegetables, people are filling 
themselves up with “mineral empty” processed food and fizzy drinks.


Study Source: This is the result of a study 
conducted by Dr. Markus Kleinewietfeld, Prof. David Hafler (both Yale 
University, New Haven and the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, MIT, and Harvard University, USA), PD Dr. Ralf 
Linker (Dept. of Neurology, University Hospital Erlangen), Professor 
Jens Titze (Vanderbilt University and Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat 
Erlangen-Nurnberg, FAU, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) and Professor 
Dominik N. Muller (Experimental and Clinical Research Center, ECRC, a 
joint cooperation between the Max-Delbruck Center for Molecular 
Medicine, MDC, Berlin, and the Charite — Universitatsmedizin Berlin and 
FAU) (Nature, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11868)*. In autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks healthy tissue instead of fighting pathogens.

April McCarthy is
 a community journalist playing an active role reporting and analyzing 
world events to advance our health and eco-friendly initiatives.



&nbsp;Original source of the article: http://preventdisease.com/news/13/030713_Scientists-Officially-Link-Processed-Foods-To-Autoimmune-Disease.shtml